In this first part, AirDropBox's Michael Cook shares details insights about their innovative solution, the engineering decisions behind its design, their successes to date and much more.
Kindly introduce yourself to us:
Hello! My name is Michael Cook, I studied mechanical engineering at King’s College London and I’m the lead design engineer at AirDropBox.
Tell us a bit more about AirDropBox:
AirDropBox has been running since September 2013, but our parent charity Relief Aid Logistics has been involved in humanitarian aid distribution since 1994.
Airdrop has always been expensive but given the poor nature of infrastructure in the developing world it has also often been a necessary part of aid operations. Unfortunately, since aid programs tend to have very restricted funds and traditional airdrop parachutes are very expensive, the budget of these programs often doesn’t stretch to the use of proper air drop equipment.
What this means in practice is that aid agencies have historically dropped large bags of rice, flour and other emergency aid without parachutes or any other kind of protection.
This had led not only to a high rate of damage to the aid supplies dropped in this way, but also to injuries and deaths among those for whom the aid is intended. A 20kg bag of rice falling at a terminal velocity of just over 200mph (320km/h; 90m/s) has nearly a hundred times the kinetic energy of a rifle bullet and thousands of times the momentum - it is an incredibly dangerous projectile.
Having been involved in aid distribution through Relief Aid Logistics since assisting aid agencies in Bosnia in the 90s, George Cook had learned about numerous incidents where intended recipients were injured or killed in this way. Existing air drop solutions, even for freight, cost tens of thousands of dollars and since they would not be recovered in aid drops this meant they were rarely used; it seemed apparent that there must be a better way to do things.
AirDropBox was therefore set up to develop a freight delivery system that would be low-cost, designed to be single-use and as biodegradable as possible, so that aid agencies could afford to use it in deployments- improving aid recipient safety, reducing loss of aid supplies due to damage and increasing the effectiveness of air drop all around.
What are the notable features of your system?
There are three different sizes of AirDropBox system at present, but they all share a few core features.
- They are generally very low cost; typically, the price of an AirDropBox system will be roughly 10% of the cost of conventional air drop parachutes in the same payload range.
- They are very simple to assemble and use; most air drop systems require a skilled rigger to pack and assemble for use, whereas an unskilled individual can be trained to assemble and load any of AirDropBox’s systems in about ten minutes.
- They are as biodegradable as possible. Our parachute canopies are made from polypropylene with an additive that causes the material to break down when exposed to sunlight into very short-chain molecules which can then be broken down by bacteria, and our payload containers are specifically designed to be either fully biodegradable or, in the case of the bag versions of the larger systems, as re-usable as possible so that no waste is left in the environment.
- All of our systems except for the UAS-specific variant of the AirDropBox Micro can be safely deployed at airspeeds of up to 130kts. This was a specific design goal so that all AirDropBox systems can be deployed safely from light and medium-lift military aircraft such as the C-130 Hercules or Airbus A400M, which typically have a stall speed of about 100kts.
- In addition to military transports our systems can be deployed from light civilian aircraft and UAVs. The simplicity and very basic requirements of the AirDropBox system mean that crew training requirements are minimal and the systems can be deployed from practically any aircraft that can take them aloft. This means that responses to natural disasters or other humanitarian crises can be much more flexible, rapid and precise, as well as having a number of other benefits.
Most AirDropBox systems are a fraction of the cost of other equivalents, though the AirDropBox Micro UAS is at present built to a much higher spec than other systems in its payload range due to its roots in a design built to withstand high-speed deployments. We do plan to develop a lower-cost version of the AirDropBox Micro UAS system, but we would like to gather some responses and feedback data on what the most important features of such a system will be from potential users first.
What have been the biggest / most successful projects that AirDropBox have been involved with?
Probably our first major deployment was our part in the response to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in Puerto Rico in September 2017. Joel Ifill, CEO of Dash Systems, a relatively small air freight and UAV company, bought out our entire stock of AirDropBox Mini systems (designed for payloads of up to 20kg) and used them to deliver much-needed medical and food aid to some of the more remote inland communities using a Cessna 208 Caravan.
We have also been involved in the British Army’s Advanced Warfare Experiment, supplying equipment to several of the UAS manufacturers involved in the “Last Mile” logistics project. This aims to extend the reach of military logistics in an agile and responsive way, right down to individual squads in the field which may need re-supply with additional ammunition or other supplies on patrols that may face unplanned extensions or run into more resistance than anticipated.
Our parachutes have also featured on TV! Bear Grylls’ “Treasure Island” series may not have been a huge ratings success, but the parachutes used to deliver the “treasure” packages to the island were made by us and deployed from a helicopter.
AirDropBox systems have also been used successfully on exercise by the Irish Air Corps, among others.
What are your future plans and ambitions for AirDropBox?
Enabling safe air delivery by UAVs, so that they don’t risk having to land with the threat of danger to people and property on the ground, for the UAV or its payload, is a key ambition for the future. Safety first is of paramount importance.
We anticipate the demand for UAV delivery services, and therefore systems, to increase exponentially - driven by safety, cost and speed of delivery. However, the risk of causing personal injury should be avoided and we believe AirDropBox systems can help do that in a cost-effective way.
What are the most exciting developments in aerospace engineering for you?
It is difficult not to be excited by the rise of automation in any field, and aerospace is no exception. While at present many UAV companies are focusing on small systems, I think that the future of unmanned air transport is in full replacement of heavy goods airlift - and in contrast to a lot of current-generation large UAVs, such as military drones which require remote monitoring from a human pilot, I anticipate most such freight transport flights being fully-automated in future. It’s important not to get carried away and apply automation technology too early, and the ability of current AI technology to respond to rapidly changing conditions may not quite be enough to satisfy regulators yet, but I think it is coming. AI is unlikely to entirely replace human pilots on passenger flights, if only for psychological reasons, though I do anticipate human operators will become less active in the process of flying as AI becomes a safer and safer option.
Tell us about your involvement in the UAS Challenge and what you hope to achieve:
We are sponsoring the UAS Challenge with free equipment; specifically, we are offering our AirDropBox Micro UAS system for free to each of the teams involved, as well as full support in using the system effectively. We have sent two systems to each team that has requested them in order to help them develop their UAS solution, and we are also going to have stock available for each team to have a backup pair of systems for the competition itself. If any team has any questions, feedback or suggestions, they are welcome to email me at michael.cook@airdropbox.co.uk and I will do my best to assist them.
What we hope to achieve out of this is twofold. Firstly we regard this as an opportunity to introduce a generation of top engineers around the world to AirDropBox products. Secondly it is an invaluable opportunity for us to engage with potential end users of our AirDropBox Micro UAS system and other AirDropBox products; as mentioned, we are looking to develop the AirDropBox Micro UAS system further to enhance its reliability and reduce its cost and mass. Feedback and suggestions on which features are most important to users and how we might be able to improve our designs are therefore invaluable.
What do you see are the best parts of the UAS Challenge?
The process of building any fully-realised product to a set of external specifications is tremendously instructive to any prospective engineer. It’s easy to get lost in theory when you are learning engineering, and having a project to apply that theory to can be absolutely key in discovering the real-world impact of all of the things you are studying, and cementing its place in your memory.
In addition, all of engineering is to some extent or another a compromise between competing requirements- including ones that engineers themselves might otherwise prefer not to have to consider such as managing a budget, limiting the total mass of the system and having a limited time in which to produce a solution which meets the required capabilities. Working on such a project while still at university can therefore be enormously beneficial, as well as being a lot of fun!
What advice would you give students who are graduating and starting their career this year?
UAV delivery has a bright and exciting future, so make the best use of the UAS Challenge to learn all you can.
Being an aeronautical engineer undergraduate now is an amazing opportunity to get involved in a blossoming industry and will offer good potential for career path progression in the UAV delivery world.
Our thanks to Michael and the team at AirDropBox for their detailed answers. Be sure to stay tuned for part 2 later this week, in which Michael shares some detailed guidance for all teams to consider when running their UAS at the competition.