Africa, the Mother land where all Human life on planet earth
traces its roots, is also an innovator in no less an area than the developement
of drones. With this latest bit of news, a Third-world country has taken a step
towards becoming the next big playground for Drone Startup from Silicon Valley
looking for new markets for their services.
Rwanda, a Developing world country, has now officially
beaten the Americans as it relates to their usage of drones as Rwanda’s Civil
Aviation Authority is drafting plans for the world's first Drone airport as
reported in the article “The
world’s first airport for drones will be built in Rwanda”, published
October 8 20915 by Lily Kuo, Quartz.
This is not surprising as Rwanda has a very tech-savvy
government!!!
It also beats the lackluster effort of Silicon Valley and
NASA (National Aeronautical and Space Administration) as they draft proposal
for ATC (Air Traffic Control) for drones as they await word from the FAA
(Federal Aviation Authority) as reported in my blog article
entitled “@NASA
Air Traffic Control System – Why @Google, @Amazon and @Verizonwireless want an
ATC ahead of FAA's New Guidelines in 2016”.
Unlike countries such as South Africa and Kenya whose
aviation authorities have very strict regulations on the use of Drones,
Rwanda's government has openly accepted their usage, once they register with
the Rwanda’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Registration is surprisingly fast to a Developing world
country, with electronic business registration taking no more than three (3)
days compared to thirty (30) days required in neighboring Uganda. Their open
Technology policy on Laptops, Tablets and smartphones has made the country
rapidly make a recovery since the Rwandan Genocide in 1994.
This has resulted in them being often referred to as
Africa's Silicon Valley as noted in “Rwanda:
Africa's Silicon Valley?”, published September 17, 2015 by Juan Herrero, Pulitzer Center and “Rwanda
Could Be The Next Silicon Valley: But it Needs Youth to Help it Get There”
published 01/07/2015 by Janet Longmore, Huffington
Post.
So why exactly is Rwanda so interested in Drones?
Rwanda builds
world's first Drone Airport - How the Land of 1000 hills will be connected by a
Network of Drones
Aside from these artiste concept images, the Rwandan
Government is tight lipped about details of their technical first in the world.
What is known is that the Airport is a part of a
three-building structure as show below being developed by architectural firm
Foster + Partners as reported in the article “Star
architect designs the world's first 'airport for drones'”, published
October 5, 2015 By Jacopo Prisco, CNN News.
Rwanda, the country of otherwise known as the “land of 1,000
hills”, is a landlocked country with a population of 11.78 million. The plans
being put in place by the Rwandan Government and being drafted by Rwanda’s
Civil Aviation Authority is for three (3) such drone airports servicing 44% of
the country's population with Cargo Delivery services by the year 2019.
The majority of that cargo will be farm produce to be sent
to market, delivery of postage and parcels as well as emergency medical
supplies to the most remote parts of this land-locked country.
Naturally, fearing a little envy from the First world, the
Rwandan Government is tight lipped about the plans for their Drone airports or
even details on the drones themselves or who their contractor may be.
But they appear to be two (2) types of drones:
1. Redline
- Range 50km - Payload 10kg
2. Blueline
- Range 100km - Payload 100kg
Plans are afoot to also build a health clinic, a repair
center for repairing and building more drones as well as a courier service for
their Post Office.
Rwanda plans to build forty (40) more of these Drone
airports across Rwanda, based on how well the first three (3) work out,
interconnecting even the most remote regions of this land of 1000 hills via
Drones.
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