Cut-off North Sea island: Oh crap, ferry's been and gone. Need milk. SUMMON THE DRONE

A drone parcel delivery trial in Germany solves air traffic control problems by having nothing-but-drones airspace and no flying over buildings.

The parcelcopter, a squat buggy-looking thing, is a four-engined remotely controlled helicopter with a parcel pod fixed to its belly between four curved landing struts.

DHL parcelcopter

The trial is a DHL Parcel research project that flies to Juist, a tiny North Sea island (just 7km long) off the German mainland, from Norddeich harbour. Flights take place only at certain times of day with the parcelcopter flying the 12km in restricted airspace with no overflying of houses. There is a ground station for the flight which is in constant contact with air traffic controllers.

This non-urban delivery trial restriction gets over the risk of collisions with other manned or unmanned aircraft. Birds are still a hazard though.

The parcel pod

During the trial it will fly when ferries from Norddeich and piloted flights are not available. DHL envisages it being used to deliver up to 1.2kg of medications – pills and so forth – and other urgent deliveries to Juist, where there is a parcelcopter-only landing field. From there DHL couriers will complete the delivery by using cars or bicycles – high-tech meets low-tech.

Juist residents and vacationers order medication from the Seehund pharmacy on the island.

Click image to see parcelcopter video

Challenges include the weather, which can be windy and wet. Microdrones GmbH developed the drone for DHL. At an altitude of 50m, the 5kg, four-rotor parcelcopter can travel up to 18m per second depending on wind speed. That's roughly up to 65kmph (40mph), with the flight to Juist taking 15 to 30 minutes.

It seems a neat and realistic scenario to use to research into drone delivery possibilities.

DHL says there are no current specific plans to use the DHL parcelcopter in normal parcel delivery operations. It thinks the use of parcelcopters to deliver urgently needed goods to thinly populated or remote areas is an interesting option for the future, depending on the outcomes from this trial. ®