Promoted by Telespazio the initiative is being carried out in collaboration with ASL 1 Abruzzo (the regional health authority), involving the hospitals of L’Aquila and Avezzano, and with the support of the municipalities of Collelongo, Montereale, and Rocca di Mezzo, located within the Sirente Velino Regional Park.
The service was officially presented today in the town of Collelongo, in the province of L’Aquila, with a demonstration delivery of medical supplies from the hospital in Avezzano to the village pharmacy using an unmanned aerial vehicle.
The project’s goal is to improve access to hospital medications, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas, while ensuring timely delivery, safety, and environmental sustainability. During the test phase—structured as a fully authorized operational service by the ASL—drones carried out scheduled deliveries under controlled conditions, in full compliance with existing safety and privacy regulations, with the collaboration of local pharmacies.
As part of the U-ELCOME project, Telespazio - a Leonardo’s joint venture - has already carried out operational demonstrations at the Fucino Space Centre, simulating applications such as environmental monitoring and precision agriculture, thus contributing to the validation of U-space services and the development of a regulated ecosystem for advanced air mobility. This project further confirms the commitment of Telespazio and the Leonardo Group to innovation in unmanned air transport and to the dissemination of high-impact technological solutions that support the sustainable development of the areas in which they operate.
This initiative is part of a broader effort to modernize public healthcare, representing a tangible step toward new models of community-based medicine that harness aerospace technologies to effectively meet citizens’ needs