Make way, storks who bring babies. Drones that deliver organs for transplant may soon be sharing the airways with you.

Lung Biotechnology and Ehang Holdings just announced a collaboration to develop up to 1,000 evolved versions of the Ehang 184, the world's first autonomous drone for humans, to automate organ transplant delivery.

"We anticipate delivering hundreds of organs a day, which means that the system will help save not only tens of thousands of lives, but also many millions of gallons of aviation transport gasoline annually," Martine Rothblatt, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Lung Biotechnology said in a statement.
Their program, called the Manufactured Organ Transport Helicopter (MOTH) system, will be developed over the next 15 years.

The beauty of drone delivery is its simplicity and always-on availability. Reviewing the 184, Gizmag noted that all you have to do is push the start button and then "its automated flight systems will take over from there, managing tasks such as communication with air traffic control and other aircraft, obstacle avoidance, and of course navigation – it will always choose the fastest yet safest route between its present location and its destination."

Recharging the robot bird takes a fast four hours in trickle mode or two hours in fast charge. That loads it with enough juice to send one passenger airborne for 23 minutes.

Ehang's drone expertise fits well with Lung's specialization in biotechnology. The latter specializes in a variety of technologies, from pig-to-human xenotransplantation to regeneration from stem cells.

Future plans call for the drones to be stationed outside of its organ manufacturing facilities. The craft will be preprogrammed with flight plans to hospitals and recharging pads within the MOTH radius so that the manufactured organs can be delivered within their lifesaving post-production window of viability.

"This huge shift in organ production and delivery has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives," the company noted, adding that "currently, organ transplants are limited by the number of brain-dead donors, which results in thousands of deaths on organ transplant waiting lists each year."

The tragic transplant-demand figures make the case for pushing forward on this new approach to delivery. In the case of lung transplants, at present, for example, "only about 2,000 lung procedures are performed annually, whereas over 200,000 people in the U.S. die of end-stage lung disease each year," the company stated.

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