Rwanda to host delivery drones launchpad to boost ecommerce in the region

The project, led by UK-based architecture firm Forster + Partners and Afrotech, an African technology initiative by Swiss research university Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, envisages a program that could be replicated across a continent with a lack of adequate transport infrastructure, bloomberg reports. Africa needs sustained investment of USD 93 billion a year to fill its infrastructure gaps, according to Africa Development Bank estimates.

“We want to pioneer ghost railways in the sky,” Jonathan Ledgard, a director at Afrotech, said in an e-mailed response to questions. “Larger loads going longer distances in quiet, beautiful, ultra-cheap craft is a different vision to Amazon’s insect approach of bristling tiny drones carrying small loads short distances.”, the source cites.

Construction of the first droneport in Rwanda, which the unmanned aerial vehicles can use for take offs and landings, may begin in H2, 2016, Ledgard said. The companies involved in the project are working out regulatory details with civil aviation authorities, Rwanda Development Board Chief Executive Francis Gatare said.

Afrotech plans to initially deploy three-meter (10-foot) wingspan flying robots capable of conveying 10 kilograms (22 pounds) and then wider machines carrying a payload ten times bigger than that within a decade, according to a statement published on Foster + Partners’ website. Research, development and regulatory work is estimated to cost USD 6 million annually in the four years it will take to launch the first commercial drone, Ledgard said.

The project intends to have three droneports by 2020 creating a network that will cover about half the nation. That will gradually increase to 40 buildings across the country and allow expansion into neighbors such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Foster + Partners. The United Nations already has drones gathering intelligence on rebel groups operating in eastern Congo.