The LeiferMichel project in the Michelstadt districts in Germany continues to grow from strength to strength in the new year, with a further extension into the new year, and non-prescription medicine now included to the list of commodities that can be delivered to people’s homes by a combination of an unmanned aerial vehicle and a bike.

To recap, LeiferMichel is a drone and bike-based project where German drone logistics company Wingcopter is working in collaboration with the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (Frankfurt UAS) to deliver groceries around the Michelstadt area, Hesse in the Odenwald region in Germany; under the codename “LieferMichel” (DeliverMichel).

The project has been running since October last year and has already bagged a locally popular client: professional football cub SV Darmstadt 1898, which has been deploying the Wingcopter 198 drones to deliver fan merchandise to customers buying from the club’s stores this Christmas period.

In more good news; in addition to the inclusion of medical supplies to the inventory of items to be delivered, Wingcopter also announced that the project has been further extended to the end of March.

This, according to the drone maker, makes it possible to pursue the main project objectives over a longer period of time. The objectives include the implementation of safe drone flight operations in unrestricted airspace, including over the winter months, and the analysis of demand for delivery services in rural areas.

“Delivering medicines is part of our DNA at Wingcopter. In many projects to date, we have delivered medicines to hospitals and collected laboratory samples from there,” said Ansgar Kadura, co-founder and Chief Services Officer of Wingcopter.

“Now, for the first time, we are delivering medicines directly to the end customer. This is an exciting learning experience and an important milestone in this project.”

The medicines will be supplied by Bären-Apotheke, a local pharmacy which is now providing a product category that many local residents have explicitly requested.

“We are always looking for ways and means to offer our customers an even better shopping experience and improve local supply options,” said Frank Buffleb, pharmacist and owner of Bären Apotheke in Erbach.

“Here in rural areas, the long distances often make it difficult for sick people to get their medication quickly. We are therefore very pleased to be gaining initial experience with drone-based deliveries as part of the LieferMichel project.”

Having now integrated with the LieferMichel platform, Bären-Apotheke has become part of the select group of service providers from where users have been able to choose from a wide range of goods from the REWE centre in Michelstadt since the start of the project.

The providers include Odenwaldbox, a provider of regional products, and SV Darmstadt 98 with a selection of fan merchandise have also been added to the platform over the course of the project.

“The expansion of the range to include non-prescription medical supplies shows the attractiveness of the project and demonstrates the demand for individual services in this sector too,” said Professor Dr Kai-Oliver Schocke, President of the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.