# Deliver AEDs by drone before the ambulance arrives

Idea · id `cardio:idea-drone-aed-delivery` · Cardiovascular Atlas · release `73130c34862e2d06` (public)

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Browse, condition area: Acute care and long-term living  

## In plain language

An AED could be flown to the scene of a cardiac arrest by drone. A UK project tested a version of this: a drone flew an AED beyond the pilot's line of sight, dropped it by parachute at a simulated cardiac arrest in a remote area of Wales, and lay responders used it. The final delivery of 4.5 km took 2 minutes 50 seconds. This was a flight test, not a patient trial, and the authors say more research is needed before routine use.

## Technical summary

PLoS One 2021 (PMC8592459, open access, CC BY 4.0): six flights totalling 92 km and 1 hour 2.5 minutes of flight time, four successful parachute payload drops, and a Penguin B fixed-wing drone with satellite-enabled technology. The authors write that regulatory barriers exist, including limits on flights beyond visual line of sight. The abstract does not report the time from the call to the first shock or any patient outcome.

## Connected pages

- The device that is delivered: Automated external defibrillator (AED) (`cardio:automated-external-defibrillator`)
- Another way to speed care before help arrives: Unequal bystander CPR after cardiac arrest in the community (`cardio:bottleneck-bystander-cpr-gaps`)
- Filed under this front: Emergency and acute care (`cardio:front-emergency-and-acute-care`)

## Provenance

Content hash: 06101fe1a905aad6f19db6ac3f6d0cb769d1d8da19ec4980343de38371ab8cd2
Last substantive edit: 2026-10-15
Evidence last checked: 2026-10-15