This August, South African festival-goers will test the world's first booze-delivery service executed by drones.
The unmanned aerial vehicle technology will take to the skies at the annual OppiKoppi festival in Northam, Limpopo. Attendees will be able to avoid long queues at the bars by ordering drinks on their smartphones and having the frosty beverages parachuted to their locations.
Spin reports that the eight-propeller helicopter, dubbed the OppiKoppi Beer Drone, was developed by Cape Town's Darkwing Aerials. The drones are capable of air-dropping cold ones fixed to a parachute to music revellers who have ordered the drinks via an application on their GPS-enabled smartphones. The beer drone currently carries one beer at a time, but Darkwing Aerials co-founder Dean Engela says they are working on prototypes that will carry two or three. According to festival organisers, the beer drone is currently hand-guided, but there are plans for the device to fly on a GPS grid.
Engela is not oblivious to the problems that could occur when making aerial deliveries of alcoholic beverages at busy music festivals. He noted that Darkwing Aerials is taking safety precautions to prevent cans from hitting unassuming festival-goers on their heads.
"There's going to be one campsite designated to the beer drop," Engela told CBSNews.com. "The campsite will be notified that there will be drones in the air," he said, adding that those who are inside the designated beer drop-off area will be alerted when a drone is in the air.
Although this is the first time drones will be used for beverage deliveries to a festival audience, the concept is not a new one. In December last year, a team from Darwin Aerospace unveiled the Burrito Bomber, an aerial Mexican food-delivery device.
One drone has already been completed for the festival, but the team is working to provide an extra two or three for the event.
And what if a beer floats down to the wrong location? According to Engela, the beer to be distributed at the upcoming music festival is for promotional purposes and will not cost any money, so there is little concern about the ramifications should a beer end up in the hands of the wrong person, for now at least.
Share