Drone engineers from Rwanda help Zipline get started in the US

Zipline flew drone engineers from Rwanda to the U.S. to help train their counterparts after the company received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to deliver medical supplies.

Zipline flew in drone engineers from Rwanda to train U.S. counterparts

Zipline has been delivering medical supplies in Rwanda, Tanzania, and Ghana for years now. The company has successfully made over 40,000 deliveries by drone and flown more than 1.8 million miles in the process. It wasn't until the Coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. that the FAA approved Zipline to start delivering medical supplies and personal protective equipment in our country.

Last month, Zipline announced that it had received approval from the FAA and that in partnership with Novant Health it would start making medical deliveries by drone in North Carolina.

Last week, Zipline flew drone engineers from Rwanda to the U.S. to train their counterparts and get the drone delivery system up and running quickly.

In a tweet on Monday, Zipline said: “Last week, America took a page from Rwanda's playbook and launched @Zipline's drone delivery to help with #Covid19 pandemic response in the country.”

According to The New Times, Melissa Rusanganwa, the Regulation and Aviation System Integration lead at Zipline said that Rwandan drone engineers and flight operators, such as Fabiola Urwibutso have been brought in to kickstart the U.S. operations.

“Fabiola is one of the people [trainers] who were sent because the American team could not come here. The idea is to facilitate kick operations,” she said.

Zipline has set up a global training facility in Rwanda where a total of 181 flight operators from Ghana, the U.S., and other Countries have been trained.

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