Drones to Deliver Blood in Wales Life Saving Trial

Wales is preparing to test a drone delivery system that could quietly change how blood reaches patients in emergencies.

The Dragon’s Heart project will use specially commissioned aircraft to transport blood donations by air, replacing road journeys that currently take hours, as the BBC reports.

Today, donated blood is processed in south Wales and moved by van to hospitals across the country. For locations in west and north Wales, deliveries often happen just once per day unless there is an emergency.

The new system aims to increase frequency, reduce delays, and improve access in rural areas.

The pilot program is scheduled to begin in early 2026 and is being led by the Welsh Blood Service in partnership with Snowdonia Aerospace Centre and Skyports Drone Services. During early trials, the drones will fly at altitudes of up to 2,000 feet while carrying blood secured inside the aircraft’s fuselage to reduce vibration and maintain temperature stability.

According to the Welsh Blood Service, every unit transported during the trial will be tested on arrival to ensure safety and prevent the loss of donated blood.

The Aircraft Behind the Mission

Skyports Drone Services, based in the United Kingdom, is supplying the aircraft and operational expertise. The drone being used is a hybrid VTOL design, capable of vertical takeoff like a helicopter before transitioning to fixed wing flight.

This configuration allows the aircraft to operate from small landing zones while still covering long distances efficiently. The drones can travel up to 62 miles, carry meaningful payloads, and operate in winds of up to 30 knots.

Each aircraft weighs around 55 pounds and has a wingspan of approximately 5.5 feet. A top mounted hatch places the blood payload inside the drone’s body, helping maintain environmental control during flight.

Before operations expand, Skyports and its partners must demonstrate to the UK Civil Aviation Authority that the system is safe, reliable, and suitable for routine medical logistics.

Building Drone Corridors Across Wales

Initial testing will take place at Llanbedr airfield in Gwynedd, where restricted airspace allows safe testing without interference from other aircraft. Flights can also be conducted over the sea, reducing ground risk while systems are validated.

The next major milestone is a planned route between the Welsh Blood Service headquarters in Talbot Green and the blood store in Wrexham. That journey currently takes several hours by road and could be shortened by roughly three hours using drones.

Beyond that, the project aims to establish permanent drone corridors across Wales, effectively creating aerial transport routes for medical logistics. Once these routes exist, they could support hospital supply chains and even emergency response operations.

Discussions are already underway with ambulance services to explore how drones could assist with 999 responses in the future. And no, its not nine hundred ninety nine different responses. 999 is the 911 emergency number UK equivalent.

DroneXL’s Take

This trial matters because it moves drones out of the demo phase and into real healthcare logistics, where reliability matters more than novelty. While much of the global attention has focused on Zipline in Africa or medical drone trials in the US, Wales is quietly building a regulated, scalable model inside controlled airspace.

The real innovation here is not speed alone, but frequency. Smaller payloads flown more often solve a problem that trucks never will, especially in rural regions. As regulators grow more comfortable with long range BVLOS operations, projects like Dragon’s Heart are likely to become templates, not experiments.

Medical drone delivery is no longer a future headline. It is becoming infrastructure.

Photo credit: Skyports Drone Services, SLiNK-TECH and Volant Autonomy