• Authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the operation became the first drone-delivery to transport such supplies. A NASA plane delivered the medicine to a Wise County regional airport and a Flirtey-operated drone took 24 packages the rest of the way -- to a Remote Area Medical pop-up clinic that offers medical care to area residents one weekend per year at the county fairgrounds.
  • Patients in Wise County sorely needed the packages of medicine and supplies, said Jack Kennedy, who spearheaded the partnership with Flirtey. The medicine is typically delivered by car, Kennedy said, over a bumpy 90-minute journey from a supplying pharmacy.
  • The FAA has allowed over 500 companies to fly drones this year. Flirtey co-founders Tom Bass and Matt Sweeny, McAuliffe, Wise County Clerk of Circuit Court Jack Kennedy, and Virginia Secretary of Technology Karen Jackson witnessed the groundbreaking flights.

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