01 May 2019

A group of 13 students from Malawian universities make drones from foam core (plaster board) and 3D printed parts

Malawi reached its very own aviation milestone in January 2018. A team from Virginia Tech in the US supervised a fully autonomous, 19km simulated drug delivery flight in a drone designed at the university and built by Malawian students.

The aircraft, EcoSoar, was designed at the Unmanned Systems Lab for it to be fabricated and operated in Malawi for remote medicine delivery.

EcoSoar flew in the drone testing corridor in Kasungu, which was opened by the Malawi government, in conjunction with the UN’s children’s agency Unicef, in June 2017. The corridor was designed to explore the impact of drone applications in emergency supply delivery, vaccines, sample delivery for diagnosis and remote sensing.