How to Drop Food from Planes

by Michael Bear · 2009-08-12 23:13:00 UTC
Topics:

[Food airdrop in South Sudan]

Let's say that you're a logistician with the World Food Program.  (Believe me, it's sexier than it sounds.  Especially as you tend to have easy access to alcohol, even in countries which normally frown on the demon drink.)   You spend a good portion of the day trying to figure out how to get food to those most in need.

Sometimes, it's relatively straightforward - there are roads, there are trucks.  Other times, it's a wee bit more complicated.  How do you deliver life-saving food to people stranded in places where there are no roads, or where the roads are impassible?

You drop it from a plane.

A recent IRIN article - titled How To: Do a Food Airdrop - explains exactly what's involved in a food airdrop.  (N.B. When it comes to titles, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.)  Overall, the World Food Program has airdropped 1.5 million tons of aid over the last fifteen years.

Most drop zones are marked with white food bags along the perimeter, and a cross in the center.  The plane  flies slowly over the drop zone at around 185 kilometers per hour.

The food itself - food powder, pulses or grains - is sewn into reinforced packs. To keep the packs from exploding on impact, the planes fly low.  Often planes will drop food from just over 200 meters.

Once over the drop zone, the loadmaster releases the food. 

An Antonov A-12 can hold 15 tons of food; a Hercules C-130 can hold 18 tons, and an Iluyshin-76 can hold 36 tons.

A WFP food monitor or logistician on the ground coordinates the drop, and then helps arrange the actual distribution.

This year, though, such food drops will be fewer and further between, as the World Food Program is running out of money.  

According to a recent WFP press release: "When we calculated the cost of feeding 108 million hungry people in 74 countries in 2009, we set a budget of US$6.7 billion. Taking into account forecasts and money already received, we now expect to end the year with US$3.7 billion."

Michael Bear
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