This Startup Wants to Use Drones to Drop Blood, Not Bombs

[Voiceover] This catapult is launching

what could be the future of healthcare.

[Woman Off Camera] Two, one!

Drones are being used for everything from

dropping bombs, to monitoring farms.

But this one has a higher calling,

saving lives.

The company Zipline is running test flights

in a quiet area of the California coast.

But it has bigger plans.

It wants to drop desperately needed blood

supplies to remote parts of Rwanda, Africa.

Any nurse or doctor, will place an

order via a text message.

I will receive that order.

We can take that product, put it into one of the aircraft.

We'll load the aircraft with a battery,

the aircraft goes onto the launcher, and is on.

The vehicle will fly to the GPS coordinates

of that health center.

Zipline's partnering with UPS and with Gavi,

which works to distribute vaccines in the developing world.

And their aim is to reach areas that

are cut off when the roads wash out.

Other companies are getting in on drone delivery action.

Amazon wants to get our impulse purchases to us faster.

Facebook plans to connect the world to the web.

And Goggle's Project Wing also wants to deliver

medicines or things like batteries after disasters.

Of course, there are advantages to testing

in developing countries.

It means things like fewer regulations

and a quieter airspace.

But, Rwanda will benefit if this all works out, too.

It will have the first national drone delivery system.

That's the kind of infrastructure that

online shoppers the world over, can only envy.