History is made ! Successful aerial release trials prove the Senecio technology is working as expected. The fragile insects were released while flying at 275km/hr and survived due to Senecio technology.
Senecio became the first ever company to release mosquitoes from mid air, and have them survived !
Our project with Dynamic Aviation was part of a BIRD Foundation Grant, supporting our work to manage and achieve this day.
We had a great time working with our partners during the test flight, including multiple teams from Dynamic Aviation and MosquitoMate which brought in the mosquitoes and provided their expertise and objective analysis of our work.
What we did :
Proved our novel release POD is working and providing a safe environment for the fragile insects.
Prove the modular approach using cassette is working
Proving the release mechanism is working.
This is Generation one in which mosquitoes are held in cartrdiges and are puffed outside sequentially. The general release mechanism for the sequential release of cartridges has already later on became a GRANTED Patent and can be used both for Ground (van), and aerial (drone or aircraft) release.
Dynamic Aviation King Air is lowering towards the release coordinate right above the target tars below it.
Drops were done at 50ft up to 300ft.
Mosquitoes being released for first time in mid air from a flying aircraft !
Once released, ground teams from the three companies identified the dropped mosquitoes. In the picture, Senecio CEO pointing to MosquitoMate colleague for a dropped mosquito on the ground to be collected for further analysis.
We had a great time with our partners and we wish for more collaborative work together !
