First federally approved drone delivery of medicine took place Friday in rural Virginia

The first federally approved drone delivery of medicine took place on Friday at a rural field hospital in southwest Virginia, Yann Ranaivo reports for The Roanoke Times. "The drone, a hexacopter roughly the size of a portable fire pit," made three trips from the airport two miles away, delivering 20 pounds of medicine to benefit two dozen patients at the annual Remote Area Medical mobile clinic in Wise County. (Times photo by Stephanie Klein-Davis: the drone leaving the Lonesome Pine Regional Airport)

Virginia Tech University's "Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership—one of six U.S. drone test sites approved by the Federal Aviation Administration—ran the groundbreaking exercise in collaboration with NASA and Flirtey, a Reno, Nev.-based drone startup," Ranaivo writes. The delivery included "medication for diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma, chronic stomach pains and depression, among other conditions." (Read more)