TWIN BUTTES — A drone program of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation took a major step forward this week with a successful protocol flight of a medical delivery drone, despite challenges from formidable North Dakota winds.
Members of the MHA Drone Team on Wednesday conducted a demonstration flight of a drone capable of carrying medicine from Elbowoods Memorial Health Center in New Town to Twin Buttes Medical Clinic. The flight follows months of planning, community conversations, permit securing and technical details “that put us on a path of success,” according to the project’s Facebook page.
The MHA Drone Team included members of the MHA Nation, Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College in New Town, Elbowoods Memorial Health Center, the University of North Dakota, Valkyrie UAS Solutions, Florida-based advanced radar company DeTect, the Northern Plains UAS Test Site, and Airspace Link.
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The flight is the latest accomplishment of a UND-led project funded by a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The project is in phase one of the grant, which focuses on planning and protocol development.
“That’s what we’re focused on, is kind of proving out the concept of what we can do and showcasing that it can be done and how it can be helpful and how it benefits the tribe — and doing this technical platform integration and showcasing that we have the right drone and the right expertise in place,” Airspace Link Implementation Services Director Kelley Lindish said. Airspace Link is a Detroit-based company providing drone flight planning and operation software for the program.
Lindish said the tribe intends to apply for phase two of the grant — the “enablement phase” — sometime next summer, which would open up an additional $15 million for the project. That phase will allow the tribe to apply additional uses for the technology based on other needs identified.
The MHA Nation Drone Project aims to shorten the delivery times of vital medical supplies to areas around the MHA Nation’s Fort Berthold Reservation using unmanned aircraft. The hope from leaders is that drone medical deliveries will expand access to health care, and deliver life-saving medicine more efficiently. Project partners also plan to evaluate additional potential uses of the technology for delivering goods to the reservation’s remote rural areas.
Fort Berthold spans over 1,500 square miles of western North Dakota. Limited access to medications and emergency services is a consequence of the flooding of tribal lands following the construction of Garrison Dam. Lake Sakakawea, the dam’s reservoir that cuts diagonally through the center of the reservation, acts as a significant geographical barrier between reservation communities. The only reservation crossing is a bridge near New Town.
Due to the lake, medical trips between the reservation’s main clinic in New Town to the clinic in Twin Buttes require a two-hour drive, routed on state Highway 22 through Killdeer. It’s a drive that could become next to impossible during inclement weather and poses an issue for tribal members lacking transportation.
A drone, such as the Swoop Aero being used for the project, can fly directly across the lake, a route that is only about 35 miles — around half an hour of flight time. Eventually, the project could be expanded to include other clinics on the reservation.
“Being able to have a mechanism where you can get emergency relief — whether it’s EpiPens or some kind of Narcan — that is possible to distribute it quicker, faster, more efficiently, will benefit the tribe,” Lindish said.
The flight
The drone project employs a “beyond visual line of sight” operation, allowing one person to operate the drone remotely. On Wednesday, an operator in New Town used a laptop to guide the drone to Twin Buttes along a precharted path with waypoints. The drone flew at least 300 feet above the ground to minimize any risks from the ground.
The plan on Wednesday was to feature two round-trip flights from New Town to Twin Buttes, but the weather had other ideas. Wind speeds in the area on Wednesday were above 20 mph, with wind gusts reaching above 30 mph. The drone only has an operational range of 25 knots, or around 29 mph, according to Valkyrie UAS Solutions co-founder Ty Harmon, the company helping to operate the aircraft.
Because of the windy conditions, the drone team flew the aircraft only from New Town to Twin Buttes before packing the drone up for the day.
“The biggest challenges today was that you have extreme weather conditions,” Harmon said. “We had a very small window today before the wind got above 25 knots.”
Harmon said North Dakota’s weather conditions pose significant challenges for drone delivery, but these can be managed through “smart planning.” This includes operating on days with less wind and avoiding severe conditions such as blizzards. Delivering enough supplies to sustain a clinic between flights and establishing multiple drone hubs would also help mitigate weather-related issues, Harmon added.
“There are limitations to this small aircraft, there’s no question. But if you have some smart planning, than the goal is to be able to support 80-95% of the year,” he said. “And that may be at night, because we can fly at night when the winds are less.”
Updates on the project and videos from Wednesday’s protocol flight can be found on the project’s Facebook page at Additional information on the project can be found at
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Publish date : 2024-09-21 01:00:00
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