UK company develops edible drones to feed the world’s hungry

LONDON — For people facing hunger in isolated or dangerous parts of the world, the only thing better than the sight of a drone coming over the horizon laden with supplies may be this: A drone you can eat.

That, at least, is the claim of a British company that is developing a prototype of an edible drone whose parts could be made of anything from honeycomb to compressed vegetables.

A prototype of the Pouncer unmanned aerial vehicle, the biggest of which will have a wingspan of about 3m, is expected to be tested in Britain next month.

Mr Nigel Gifford, founder and chairman of Windhorse Aerospace, said he hoped his drones could be delivering food in places such as South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, or north-east Nigeria before the end of the year.

But some aid organisations are deeply sceptical about such claims, at a time when those countries are facing what a senior United Nations official described last week as the biggest humanitarian crisis since World War II.

Mr Gifford, a professional adventurer who was part of the logistics team for Mr Richard Branson’s attempt to circumnavigate the Earth by hot air balloon, said his drones could deliver supplies within 7m of accuracy. A fully loaded version could feed 100 people for a day at a cost of £225-£250 (S$389-S$430) each, he said.

“We are looking at a variety of foodstuffs that could be used,” said Mr Gifford, former managing director of Ascenta, which in 2014 sold its remote-Internet drone technology to Facebook for about US$20 million (S$28.3 million).

“Honeycomb is really robust,” he said, adding that he was even considering making landing gear using salami. “It is physically strong with good tensile strength and flexibility.”

Mr Kevin Watkins, chief executive of international non-governmental organisation Save the Children, cautioned that drones had no role in delivering food in large quantities. “This is someone who has come up with a crackpot idea based on the assumption that technology can solve all problems,” he said.

Mr Watkins said he had just returned from Somalia where drought meant that a million children were either severely or acutely malnourished. “Many are in a life-threatening situation, where one episode of pneumonia or diarrhoea will tip them over the edge,” he said.

The situation demanded urgent and serious international action, stressed Mr Watkins. “This is where you need the mechanism of state to kick in,” he added. “This is not drone territory. It’s ridiculous.”

Mr Gifford denied his edible drones were a gimmick, saying they could get supplies to remote areas or war zones in an emergency’s initial stages.

“There are a lot of traditional attitudes about how aid is done,” he said.

Food in Somalia was being thrown out of aeroplanes with little way of knowing whether it was getting through. Much of the food air-dropped into Aleppo, in Syria, last year ended up feeding Islamic State, he added.

Windhorse said it showed a prototype of the drone to Ms Priti Patel, Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development, and had discussed the technology with Medecins Sans Frontieres and Oxfam.

Mr Gifford said Britain was short of risk capital and that he needed £750,000 to get his project going. “You know what keeps an aeroplane in the air? Money,” he said.

Mr Watkins noted that drones might be useful for delivering medicine. There are working drone projects in Africa, including Tanzania and Rwanda, to supply plasma to women in childbirth. But, he added: “(Drones are) good at killing people and blowing things up. They are absolutely irrelevant for resolving acute hunger.” FINANCIAL TIMES