Last Wednesday, September 17, was a very special day for our Bluenest by Globalvia  team and for the promotion of Advanced Air Mobility in our cities.

On the occasion of European Mobility Week, we held the event “The Healthcare Transport of the Future: logistics drones for last-mile intra-hospital connectivity within the framework of the European U-ELCOME project”, in which our team successfully carried out a new flight demonstration with a logistics drone for the transport of medical supplies between the Carlos III Hospital and the University Hospital of La Paz.

It is a conference organized jointly with the Ministry of Housing, Transport and Mobility of the Community of Madrid and the University Hospital of La Paz and is part of the European U-ELCOME project, whose objective is to promote the implementation of a series of U-Space services and procedures for the integration and safe and effective management of drone traffic in European airspace.

The event was attended by more than 100 guests, including public administration officials, industry partners and, in general, a convinced and passionate public about urban air mobility.

The event included high-level speeches by Benito Núñez, Secretary General of Air and Maritime Transport of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, José María García Gómez, Deputy Minister of Housing, Transport and Infrastructure of the Community of Madrid, Almudena Quintana, General Director of Assistance of the Community of Madrid, Rafael Pérez-Santamarina, General Director of the La Paz University Hospital, Enrique Maurer, CEO of ENAIRE and José Ignacio Rodríguez, Managing Director of Bluenest by Globalvia.

From left to right, in the front row Benito Núñez, José María García, Almudena Quintana and Rafael Pérez-Santamarina. In the back row, Pedro Araujo, José Ignacio Rodríguez, Javier Martín Rivals and Enrique Maurer.

After the institutional opening of the event, which was held in the Caleido event space, the guests went up to the viewpoint, from where the flight was visualized.

The drone took off from the roof of one of the buildings of the Carlos III Hospital and landed at the Hospital de La Paz, crossing in just three minutes the distance between the two buildings, which is 1.5 km by road and about 900 meters in a straight line, flying at a distance of 30 meters from the ground.

The Bluenest drone, just before landing at the La Paz Hospital building.

The flight included a “handover”, that is, a transfer of control of the drone in which the first pilot, our colleague Darío Ares, -Senior UAM UTM Programs Manager at Bluenest-,  began the journey and the second, Rafael Higuera, -Head of Technology at Bluenest-, took control at the intermediate point, taking it to the landing area, ensuring continuous control of the aircraft at all times. Our colleague Daniel Molina, -Head of Operations at Bluenest-, played the role of Visual Observer (OV) to monitor the airspace in case of any eventuality.

At the same time, our colleague Ignacio Rodríguez, broadcasted the main milestones of the operation that were being visualized on the screen of the Bluenest Mobile Flight and Vertiport Control Center.

The success of this new flight in an urban environment shows that Advanced Air Mobility is possible and that every day, thanks to public-private collaboration, it is one step closer to becoming a reality.