Commercial drone deliveries are officially a reality.
A Google affiliate has begun using drones to deliver customers' Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) and FedEx ((NYSE:FDX) purchases in a test being carried out in an American town in the State of Virginia. The company, called "Wing," is owned by Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL). It has received federal government approval to make commercial deliveries using air drones. It is the first drone company to receive the approval in the U.S., beating out Amazon's Prime Air, which revealed its drone plans in back in 2013.
Earlier this month, UPS also got approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly delivery drones. The company has been running delivery tests with WakeMed's hospital campus in Raleigh, N.C.
Wing has partnered with Walgreens and FedEx to perform the tests in Christiansburg, Virginia. Walgreens customers in the town will be able to order from a list of more than 100 items and get them delivered to their doors by drones.
The first Walgreens drone delivery customers ordered cough and cold medicine. A Wing drone also delivered a FedEx package from Dick's Sporting Goods to another family in the Virginia town. The drones will start with a flying radius of about 6.5 kilometres from Wing's distribution facility in Christiansburg. The drones are capable of flying a 19-kilometre round trip, and Wing expects to widen its radius, though it did not give a timeline for expansion.
Wing is also launching tests in Australia and Finland. But Friday's flights mark its first live commercial deliveries in the U.S. since receiving the air carrier certification from the FAA. Wing CEO James Ryan Burgess noted in a news release that the speed with which drones can make deliveries — sometimes within minutes of ordering — and the environmental benefit of having fewer delivery trucks on roads.
Tech Insider
