In a letter to the FAA penned by John Nichols, the mayor of College Station, Texas—one of two locations where Prime Air began flying in 2022—on behalf of the city council he urged the regulator to deny a request that would more than double the service’s range. The mayor cited noise concerns from residents as the chief factor guiding the city’s position.

College Station has become a critical hub for Prime Air, which has struggled to get its drone delivery service off the ground. The city was intended to be one of two key launch markets in addition to Lockeford, California, but the latter service was shuttered in April after a less-than-stellar performance in a little more than its first year.

That leaves College Station as the sole market for Prime Air operations, and Amazon recently bolstered the service by adding on-demand delivery of prescription medications for the flu, asthma, pneumonia, and more. The e-commerce giant is also looking to bring drones to the Phoenix metro area in Arizona and has teased an international expansion to the U.K. and Italy.

Last year, Prime Air unveiled its MK30 drone, which is rangier, quieter, and more durable than its current MK27-2. To integrate the new model into its Texas fleet, the company submitted a draft supplemental environmental assessment to the FAA summarizing the MK30’s potential impacts on College Station residents.

Since the new model can fly in light rain and more extreme temperatures than the MK27-2, Amazon proposes operations 365 days per year, an increase from 260. Flights per day would increase from 200 to about 470 and would take place between 7:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. CT, removing an FAA restriction limiting flights to daytime hours.

Under the proposal, the company’s operating area would expand from 43.7 to 174 square miles. The expansion to 43.7 square miles happened earlier this year, when the FAA granted Amazon approval to fly its drones where its pilots cannot physically see them. Comparable waivers have been handed out to competitors such as Zipline, Alphabet’s Wing, and UPS’s Flight Forward, similarly allowing those companies to expand their service areas through remote operations.

If approved, the lighter restrictions would allow Prime Air to fly more than 170,000 operations per year in College Station with the MK30, compared to 52,000 with its current model.

Nichols said that the city is excited to be one of the few in the U.S. to host a drone delivery service. But that came with a caveat.

“While the city is supportive of Amazon Prime Air’s efforts, we do not support their request in its entirety,” Nichols wrote. “Since locating in College Station, residents in neighborhoods adjacent to Amazon Prime Air’s facility have expressed concern to the city council regarding drone noise levels, particularly during takeoff and landing, as well as in some delivery operations.”

According to Nichols, residents “have continued” to voice concerns regarding Prime Air’s planned expansion, worrying that the noise will only worsen. The mayor added that the expanded service area could extend beyond the city’s commercial zoning district, which is intended to limit commercial spillover into residential neighborhoods.

“Due to the level of concern from residents, the city would ask to delay the increase in service levels relating to the number of deliveries, as well as the expanded operation days and hours, until additional noise mitigation efforts are implemented by Amazon Prime Air,” Nichols wrote.

Nichols did offer support, however, for the introduction of the MK30, which is expected to be 40 percent quieter than its predecessor. It is unclear whether the new drone would represent sufficient “noise mitigation efforts” in the city council’s eyes, though Nichols said it would have a “positive effect” on residents’ displeasure.

The comment period for the environmental assessment closed on Friday, and the city and Prime Air will now have to wait for the FAA’s decision. Amazon is also awaiting comments and a final decision on a draft environmental assessment for its planned Arizona service.

Should the proposed expansion be rejected, it would represent yet another blow for Prime Air, which so far has not delivered on former CEO Jeff Bezos’ prognostications more than a decade ago.

In that time, competitors such as Zipline and Wing have risen to the top of the young industry—each of those firms has completed multiple hundred thousands of drone deliveries, including outside the U.S.

Prime Air’s future prospects may be bolstered by the MK30, which promises to address some of the company’s problems: namely range, excessive noise, and limitations on deliveries in inclement weather.

Amazon is not the only drone delivery provider contending with unhappy customers. Earlier this month, a Florida man was arrested for shooting down a Walmart delivery drone he said was flying over his house.

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According to an arrest affidavit, Lake County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at Clermont’s Walmart store Wednesday in response to a drone being shot while flying on delivery.

Representatives from DroneUp, a new drone delivery service partnered with Walmart, told deputies they had a two-man crew in a nearby neighborhood promoting their company by doing mock deliveries. The crew was at the delivery point outside Dennis Winn’s residence in a cul-de-sac.

After the drone arrived and began its descent, one of the DroneUp employees told authorities a man, later identified as Winn, pointed a handgun at the drone. After hearing a gunshot, the crew ran to the van and drove back to Walmart. The damaged drone also returned to the store.

The crew spotted a bullet hole in the drone’s payload system and estimated the damage at $2,500. Deputies noted metal shavings consistent with bullet fragmentation. The complainant from DroneUp told deputies the drone will be inoperable for some time.

Questioned by a deputy at his home, Winn said the drone had flown over his house, so he shot at it with his 9 mm handgun. Winn told the deputy he had past experience with drones flying over his house and believed they were surveilling him.

The deputy said Winn reacted with disbelief when he was told he had shot a Walmart drone.

The deputy told Winn the damages amount to $10,000, which he had been advised were the damages at the time. Winn told the deputy that if he had to pay $10,000, then he wanted the drone as his personal property.

The deputy told Winn the round he shot had gone over several other residences, and he acknowledged his actions were reckless. The deputy notes in the affidavit that when officers arrived on the scene, a small child was playing in the cul-de-sac near Winn’s residence.

Winn was taken to Lake County Jail and charged with shooting or throwing deadly missiles into dwellings, vessels or vehicles, criminal mischief of $1,000 or more in damage, and discharging a firearm in public or on residential property. Firing at an aircraft is a felony in Florida. Winn was released on $13,500 bond on Thursday.

According to Florida law, drones cannot be operated over or close to “critical infrastructure facilities” but can fly over residential neighborhoods.

That said, the state does not limit the authority of local governments to enact and enforce ordinances relating to nuisances, voyeurism, harassment, reckless endangerment, property damage or other illegal acts arising from the use of drones.

The representative from DroneUp told Lake County deputies that DroneUp is a drone delivery service defined by Florida statute and is governed by Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations concerning aeronautics and space.

A spokesperson from Walmart Inc. told FreightWaves the company was aware of the incident and referred questions to Lake County law enforcement. DroneUp did not immediately respond to FreightWaves’ request for comment. Winn also could not be reached for comment.

Author CALEB REVILL is a journalist, writer and lifelong learner working as a junior writer for Firecrown. When he isn’t tackling breaking news, Caleb is on the lookout for fascinating feature stories. Every person has a story to tell, and Caleb wants to help share them. He can be contacted by email anytime at Caleb.Revill@firecrown.com.

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on FreightWaves.

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Walmart on Thursday announced that later this month, customers in the fast-growing Dallas-Fort Worth area will be able to order drone delivery directly through the company’s app, with orders arriving in as little as 30 minutes.

Since introducing drone delivery in 2021, Walmart says it has completed more than 30,000 deliveries. As of January, the firm’s DFW service—operated in partnership with industry titans Zipline and Wing, the drone delivery arm of Google parent Alphabet—covers an estimated 1.8 million households.

Not all of these customers will be eligible for drone delivery through the Walmart app, at least not at first.

The retailer described the integration as a phased rollout that will add customers “as more drone delivery sites launch and drone providers receive additional regulatory approvals to fly more goods across greater distances.” Those eligible for delivery, based on the address linked to their account, will be notified through the app.

It’s unclear exactly which regulatory approvals to which Walmart is referring. But it’s worth noting that Zipline, Wing, and another Walmart partner, DroneUp, have all received beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) exemptions from the FAA.

The approval, awarded on a case-by-case basis, allows drone delivery firms to remove the visual observers (VOs) the agency normally requires to keep an eye on the aircraft. Typically, VOs are replaced by a combination of detect-and-avoid technology and remote pilots. The companies believe this reduced human capital will allow them to fly longer routes.

Walmart first enlisted Wing for its DFW service in August, and the partners now fly out of four Walmart stores located in the suburbs. The drone delivery firm has made a point of building technology that can integrate with its partners’ existing networks.

Physical infrastructure is limited to a fenced-in area that typically takes up a fraction of the store’s parking space. The company is also developing a device called the Autoloader, which enables what is essentially curbside pickup, but using drones. Rather than loading orders into the aircraft themselves, store associates would simply place them on the curb, and the Autoloader would do the rest.

Another recent innovation is a suite of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow partners to add drone delivery directly to their e-commerce platforms—a tool Walmart will now leverage.

“Our goal is to make drone delivery completely seamless for our partners and their customers,” said Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing. “When Wing drone delivery is available within the Walmart app later this month, customers will have a wider selection and a better shopping experience than ever before. This is a major step toward making drone delivery a part of everyday life.”

The company also has a drone delivery integration with DoorDash, which in 2022 became the first company to make a service available through a third-party app. The partnership began in Australia, Wing’s largest market. But the firm in March added fast-food delivery from Wendy’s in Christiansburg, Virginia, through the DoorDash app.

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Amazon Prime Air on Thursday said it obtained FAA approval for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations, which refer to flights that cannot be directly observed by a human pilot. The company said its new permissions will allow it to immediately expand the delivery area for its MK-27 drone in College Station, Texas, one of two U.S. locations in which it began flying in 2022. Its other service, in Lockeford, California, was shut down in April.

As things stand, BVLOS authorization is considered the king of drone delivery approvals.

In lieu of a final rule on BVLOS flights—which the FAA has been developing for years but has not yet published—the agency awards temporary waivers to individual companies on a case-by-case basis. Some exemptions, called summary grants, allow a firm to piggyback off an approval given to another company if their technologies and business models are sufficiently aligned.

For those without BVLOS waivers, drone delivery areas are often limited to just a few square miles and require human observers, which can put a strain on operations.

Amazon said Prime Air engineers developed a BVLOS strategy that includes an onboard detect-and-avoid (DAA) system, which allows the company’s drones to autonomously dodge planes, helicopters, balloons, and other obstacles.

It shared with the FAA information about the system’s design, operation, and maintenance and conducted flight demonstrations in front of agency inspectors. After observing the technology in action and poring over test data, the regulator issued the approval.

Now, in lieu of human observers, remote drone pilots will oversee the aircraft while Prime Air DAA performs most of the work.

Amazon, which already dominates same- and next-day ground delivery, hopes to deliver 500 million packages per year by drone before the end of the decade. However, the company has been reluctant to provide delivery figures since it came out last year that its Lockeford service had completed just 100 deliveries after several months of availability.

This new exemption could change things. Prime Air in 2020 obtained an FAA Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate, making it one of only five drone delivery companies to have obtained that approval. But a BVLOS waiver may allow it to truly compete with rivals such as Wing and Zipline, both of which received such permissions last year.

The company will start by ramping up in College Station. Later this year, it expects to begin deploying drones from hubs next to its same-day delivery site in Tolleson, Arizona, which is slated to be its next launch market. The idea is to be able to fulfill, sort, and deliver from a single location, strategically positioned to be as close to as many customers as possible.

Connections to nearby Amazon fulfillment centers will allow it to offer millions of items for same-day drone delivery, the company says. It has over 100 such facilities spread across the U.S. and more than 175 globally.

Next up for Prime Air will be adding further U.S. locations in 2025. The company is also planning an international expansion to the U.K. and Italy, where its drones will deliver from those larger fulfillment centers. It said it is working with regulators in both countries to introduce the service as soon as late 2024.

Simultaneously, Prime Air continues to hone the design of its new MK-30 drone, which will eventually replace the MK-27 in the U.S. and be the first Amazon drone flown in the U.K. and Italy. According to Amazon, it can fly twice as far as the company’s current model while emitting half as much perceived noise.

Prime Air’s chief competitor is Alphabet drone delivery subsidiary Wing, which as of May has completed more than 350,000 deliveries worldwide—including in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in partnership with Walmart and Walgreens.

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The company last week announced that the FAA confirmed its Eiger drone to be compliant with the regulator’s Remote ID rule, a key step toward expanding operations in the U.S. to go beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the operator.

RigiTech’s U.S. customers—which include medical drone delivery operator Spright, a subsidiary of helicopter operator Air Methods—could leverage the approval to commence BVLOS operations with a waiver from the FAA.

“Achieving this approval is a crucial milestone for RigiTech and the drone community at large, propelling us towards more complex and beneficial drone operations,” said David Rovira, co-founder and chief business officer of RigiTech. “We are committed to continuing our work with the FAA and other stakeholders to ensure a safe, secure, and innovative future for drone technology.”

BVLOS flights are considered some of the highest-risk operations in the drone delivery industry due to the lack of human oversight, since they take place where the operator cannot see them. In lieu of a final rule regulating BVLOS operations, the FAA approves them on a case-by-case basis using waivers.

However, many industry stakeholders are pushing for a more reliable system. Doing away with the human oversight requirement would expand—in some cases significantly—the area that drone delivery companies can serve, allowing them to attract more customers.

Remote ID is one of the ways the industry can reduce its reliance on human operators. It is essentially a digital license plate for drones, broadcasting live information such as a unique identification number, location, altitude, and velocity over a 2-3-mile radius. That information can be used by law enforcement, the FAA, or other federal agencies to monitor flights and ground unsafe drones.

The FAA’s Remote ID rule took full effect in March, requiring all agency-registered drones to be flown with broadcast capabilities installed either during or after manufacturing. 

Most manufacturers began producing remote ID-compliant drones in September 2022, according to the regulator. But a company can retrofit its aircraft to broadcast remote ID with technology such as a beacon. RigiTech says Eiger is compliant with the FAA’s standard remote ID requirements, meaning the drone is produced with broadcast capabilities already built in.

For a drone, Eiger is quite durable. The aircraft has a range of about 62 sm (54 nm) and payload of 6.6 pounds, capable of flying during daytime or nighttime and in winds as fast as 33 mph (28 knots). A temperature-controlled cargo hold allows it to carry medical and humanitarian payloads such as blood or vaccines.

Working behind the scenes is RigiTech’s RigiCloud software, which enables autonomous and remote Eiger flights—another key tenet of BVLOS operations. RigiCloud provides real-time flight tracking and creates preprogrammed routes in compliance with aviation regulatory authorities across Europe. The software even tracks drone maintenance and operator credentials to help customers avoid run-ins with regulators.

In July, RigiTech conducted successful tests of Eiger’s prototype precision dropping system, flying spare parts to Anholt Offshore Wind Farm 20 sm (17 nm) off the coast of Denmark. The system, an optional add-on to the drone, autonomously releases cargo from a few feet in the air when RigiCloud detects the drone has reached its destination. The tests were monitored remotely from the Danish capital of Copenhagen, 83 sm (72 nm) away.

In October, the State University of New York Upstate Medical University (SUNY Upstate) became the first U.S. company to conduct a domestic flight with Eiger. RigiTech has also received a handful of Eiger orders from Spright, beginning delivery of the first six systems in May.

According to the company, its systems have been approved for and flown BVLOS operations on five continents. Outside the U.S., it has laid the groundwork for initial service or begun flying in its home country of Switzerland, France, Greece, South Korea, and Uruguay. In February, RigiTech added Dutch drone operator Medical Drone Service as a customer to launch healthcare deliveries in the Netherlands.

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On Thursday, Wing, the drone delivery arm of Google parent Alphabet, expanded its partnership with DoorDash to the U.S. following a yearlong trial in Australia. In 2022, the companies agreed to integrate their marketplaces, allowing Wing deliveries to be facilitated through the DoorDash platform. It was the first time a drone delivery provider made its service available on a third-party app.

Initially, the service will be based out of a single Wendy’s location in Christiansburg—Wing’s first U.S. commercial market—with plans to explore other U.S. cities later this year. Dallas-Fort Worth, where Wing operates drone delivery with partners such as Walmart, is a potential candidate.

DoorDash views automation as a way to tailor solutions around customer demand and improve platform efficiency. Its partnership with Wing was born out of DoorDash Labs, a robotics and automation arm established in 2021. With the subsidiary still in its infancy, Christiansburg may well be the tip of the iceberg for DoorDash and Wing.

“We are committed to advancing last-mile logistics by building a multi-modal delivery platform that serves all sides of our marketplace,” said Harrison Shih, senior director of DoorDash Labs. “We’re optimistic about the value drone delivery will bring to our platform as we work to offer more efficient, sustainable, and convenient delivery options for consumers.”

Wing, along with medical drone delivery provider Zipline, is one of two titans in the drone delivery industry, having completed more than 350,000 deliveries. The company has flown in Christiansburg since 2019, the same year it launched service in Logan, Australia, a suburb of Brisbane.

In 2022, DoorDash became a partner, agreeing to facilitate Wing deliveries in Logan on its platform. The partners would ultimately expand the service to three locations in Australia’s Queensland region, with more than 60 participating merchants.

“Expanding our partnership with DoorDash and launching in the U.S. is a direct result of the success we’ve seen from our initial collaboration in Australia, where Wing has served tens of thousands of customers via the DoorDash app for over a year now,” said Cosimo Leipold, head of partnerships at Wing.

In Christiansburg, customers with eligible addresses can visit the DoorDash website or app and select the Wendy’s location at 2355 N. Franklin Street. At checkout, they’ll have the option to select drone delivery alongside standard delivery and pickup.

Wendy’s employees will prepare and package orders, and Wing drones will complete deliveries straight to the customer’s doorstep. From order to delivery, the process typically completes within 30 minutes. According to Wing’s early testing data from Australia, its fastest delivery took just over seven minutes.

DoorDash in 2022 explained that the service is intended for small, short-range deliveries, such as Wendy’s takeout orders, which are likely to yield smaller tips. Drones will complement the company’s delivery drivers, who will handle larger orders.

FLYING got a firsthand look at Wing’s service in Dallas-Fort Worth in October. At a Walmart Supercenter in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, the company’s operation occupies a small portion of the store’s parking lot. Other stores can set up Wing hubs on roofs or in adjacent empty spaces.

The system is almost entirely automated, designed to integrate within partners’ existing systems and workflows. All store associates need to do is bring orders from the store to the parking lot.

Wing handles things from there. An automated flight planning and uncrewed traffic management system plans routes, accounting for factors like weather, time of day, and other objects in the airspace. Then a Wing order loader attaches the payload to the drone’s tether.

All on its own, the drone takes off, flies to its destination, lowers the tether, releases the order, and flies back to continue charging. In the air, the aircraft cruises at 65 mph (56 knots) at roughly 200 feet, capable of flying in light wind, moderate rain, or even snow.

All Wing drones flying in the U.S. are overseen by operators at two Remote Operation Centers in Texas and California. Like air traffic controllers, they monitor dots on a screen and step in when an accident could occur. The company’s software also determines which drones might be in need of repairs and grounds them autonomously.

Soon, Wing’s operation will require even fewer people. The company is preparing to roll out its AutoLoader technology, which would eliminate the need for order loaders. Similar to curbside delivery, store associates will simply place orders outside for the drone to pick up on its own.

Wing is also developing a new, larger delivery drone with double the payload of its current model. About 3 in 10 Wing deliveries require two or more drones, and the updated design is intended to streamline those orders. It will complement the company’s existing model rather than replace it.

Recently, the firm obtained an FAA grant for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights without visual observers in Dallas. Visual observers are required by the FAA for BVLOS flights unless the operator has a waiver. Wing instead will use ADS-B transponders and receivers, extending the delivery range it has with human observers along its routes.

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The drone delivery and logistics company announced Thursday that the regulator has approved it for flight beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the operator, making it one of a handful of companies with a BVLOS waiver for medical deliveries.

“Securing BVLOS approval is a testament to our dedication to safety and innovation,” said DroneUp CEO Tom Walker. “We have some significant technologies coming out of stealth this year, which when combined with BVLOS, will unlock commercial scalability that the industry and our customers have been eagerly awaiting.”

For safety reasons, the FAA requires drone flights to be visually monitored by the operator. However, the agency occasionally awards waivers that enable BVLOS flights with certain restrictions, such as visual observers (VOs) stationed along the route. 

A handful of firms—including another medical drone delivery company, Zipline—advanced past that stage in September, receiving FAA approval to remove VOs as well. DroneUp’s Part 107 waiver requires one or more VOs to monitor for other aircraft in the airspace within 2 sm of the drone. But they won’t need to maintain a visual on the drone itself.

“Our ability to fly BVLOS propels us into the next level of using drone technology, undoubtedly enhancing the efficiency of medical deliveries, ensuring that crucial supplies reach healthcare facilities and patients promptly,” said John Vernon, chief technology officer of DroneUp.

DroneUp said its waiver allows it to immediately begin flying BVLOS for Riverside Health System, a customer with facilities spread throughout Virginia. According to the company, the approval will also clear a path for BVLOS deployments across the country with new and existing customers.

Two other Walmart drone delivery partners—Zipline and Wing, the drone delivery arm of Google parent Alphabet—have similarly expanded their BVLOS permissions as the massive retailer scales its network.

Wing is one of the first drone delivery firms to leverage what the FAA calls a summary grant. Essentially, these are streamlined authorizations for “copycat” companies with similar infrastructure, aircraft, and technology to those who have already been approved. Wing, for example, piggybacked off of Zipline’s BVLOS waiver.

Zipline, UPS Flight Forward, Phoenix Air Unmanned, and uAvionix were the four firms in the FAA’s initial cohort of BVLOS recipients named last year. The agency carefully selected each company in order to open summary grants to a variety of industries. Zipline’s waiver, for example, provides a framework for BVLOS medical drone delivery, while UPS Flight Forward’s does the same for parcel drone delivery.

DroneUp—like Zipline, Wing, and other waiver recipients—says its approval could substantially reduce operational costs by cutting down on required human resources. The authorization could also expand the firm’s operations: Humans will no longer be required to visually observe its drones, creating the potential for longer routes.

Waivers such as DroneUp’s will help the FAA learn more about BVLOS operations as the regulator works to develop a final BVLOS rule. So far, the agency has convened a committee of industry stakeholders and studied its final recommendations. But there is still no firm timeline for an official set of industrywide BVLOS regulations.

In lieu of a final rule, expect the FAA to continue issuing BVLOS waivers and summary grants, which will give certain communities a glimpse of what drone delivery may look like at scale. DroneUp and Walmart currently fly out of 36 hubs in seven states, so perhaps yours will be next.

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The company on Wednesday unveiled a new larger drone, which it said will be added to its fleet to “simplify and streamline” bigger orders. Wing will work with partners and regulatory stakeholders to introduce the unnamed model—which boasts double the payload of its predecessor—to service areas worldwide in the next 12 months.

The news follows Wing’s recent Dallas-Fort Worth expansion with Walmart, which the retailer claims to be the largest drone delivery expansion of any U.S. company. Wing began flying in DFW in 2022, partnering with Walmart in August to add service out of two regional Supercenters. Combined, the stores serve 60,000 homes.

The company also picked up new permissions from the FAA in December, allowing it to fly drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the operator, without human observers on the ground. Only a handful of drone delivery providers have that approval, which can improve range and reduce costs by cutting down on human capital.

According to internal company data, 70 percent of Wing’s U.S. orders are delivered by a single aircraft. That means the remaining 30 percent, however, require two or more drones. The company’s revamped design is intended to address that issue.

“Think of it like how airlines operate different aircraft for different routes: This new aircraft will streamline our deliveries of larger orders,” said Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing. “For example, you could order last-minute ingredients for dinner—pasta, marinara sauce, parmesan cheese, canned olives, and garlic.”

Wing’s larger design was borne out of its Aircraft Library approach, wherein engineers develop a variety of aircraft configurations that build on the core components of its flight-proven aircraft. This allows the firm to quickly adapt its design to meet needs identified in the market—such as a bigger drone.

The latest design shares much of its hardware and architecture with the drones comprising Wing’s fleet. These can carry up to 2.5 pounds on 12 sm (10 nm) flights, cruising at 65 mph (56 knots). The new drone maintains that range and speed but doubles the payload to 5 pounds, using the same standardized cardboard delivery box. It also keeps a hybrid aircraft configuration, which combines vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and precision hovering capability with fixed wings for cruise flight.

The updated model is also designed to work with the infrastructure and automation supporting the company’s current fleet, which comprise the Wing Delivery Network. Announced last year, the system aims to streamline deliveries by intelligently calculating routes, allocating drones based on demand, and flying fluidly between Wing hubs. 

It also introduces new technologies to simplify operations on the customer side, such as the Autoloader. In lieu of loading the aircraft themselves, store associates can simply leave packages to be picked up. Essentially, it’s curbside delivery for drones.

Crucially, Wing’s new drone won’t replace other aircraft within its fleet. Part of the Wing Delivery Network philosophy is using multiple aircraft for different mission profiles.

“It’s always been our vision to implement a multimodal drone delivery model, in the same way that ground delivery uses different vehicle sizes for different orders,” said Woodworth. “We’re committed to making that vision a reality so more shoppers can experience the convenience of drone delivery. With the new aircraft carrying more food, medicine, and household essentials, customers in urban and suburban areas will be able to bundle their orders better—and receive them in one quick trip.”

The introduction of a larger aircraft could add to Wing’s momentum. Outside of Zipline, which focuses primarily on medical deliveries (and is also partnered with Walmart), it boasts more deliveries than any other firm. By cutting back on the number of inefficient two-drone deliveries, that figure could rise even faster.

And while the new model has the same range as Wing’s other aircraft, the company’s entire fleet may soon fly farther. Before receiving FAA approval to remove visual observers, the firm was limited to 6 sm (5 nm) trips, which needed to be monitored continuously by human eyes. Now, computers can do the tracking, which should enable longer routes.

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China’s DJI, the market leader in consumer drones since 2015, this week announced that its recently unveiled FlyCart 30 model is now available globally. The company kicked off sales in China in August. But the international expansion marks its true entry into the drone delivery space.

Prior to last year, DJI made drones almost exclusively for hobbyists or industrial customers. Most of these are camera drones, equipped with features such as high-definition lenses and video recorders. Others are designed for surveillance and inspection, with thermal or infrared sensors, mapping software, and advanced communications systems.

Despite the Chinese government’s alleged involvement in DJI, the company’s ascent has largely been organic, fueled by its reputation for low cost, high quality products. Its drones have been used to film high-profile TV shows such as Game of Thrones, The Amazing Race, Better Call Saul, and American Ninja Warrior, and have developed a following among American users. They’ve also been discovered on the battlefield in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, often in modified forms.

DJI’s presence in the U.S. has drawn the ire of lawmakers, who have decried the company’s products as “TikTok with wings” and leveled accusations of spying, without concrete evidence. Bans at the federal and state levels have taken aim at it and other Chinese manufacturers. In December, lawmakers successfully included sweeping restrictions in the recently passed defense policy bill.

However, with the exception of a few states, the restrictions only hamper DJI at the federal level. American companies will still be able to purchase the buzzing aircraft, though the manufacturer will compete for business with established U.S. players such as Zipline and Google parent Alphabet’s Wing.

The Specs

DJI says FlyCart 30 can be deployed for a variety of use cases: last-mile delivery, mountain or offshore transportation, emergency rescue, agriculture, construction, surveying, and more. This week’s announcement did not list a price tag, but the model is on sale in China for $17,000.

FlyCart 30 is a multirotor design featuring eight blades connected by four shared axes. Carbon fiber propellers, powered by a pair of built-in-house batteries, provide lift. Measuring 9-by-10-by-3 feet, the model enters the market as one of the largest short-range delivery drones.

Despite its size, the drone tops out at about 45 mph (39 knots). With both batteries installed, it can carry a 30-kilogram (66 pound) payload over a distance of about 8.6 nm, remaining airborne for only 18 minutes. In emergency single-battery mode, the payload rises to 88 pounds but range is cut in half.

However, FlyCart 30 is more durable than the average delivery drone. It has an IP55 rating, meaning it protects against dust and moderate rain, and can fly in winds as fast as 27 mph. The drone can also operate in temperatures as high as 122 degrees or as low as minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit—its batteries heat themselves, maintaining performance even in the freezing cold.

In addition, the drone’s propellers are optimized to fly at up to 19,600 feet agl, or up to 9,800 agl with a 66-pound payload—far higher than the 400-foot altitude occupied by most delivery drones today. This will allow FlyCart 30 to serve China’s mountainous landscape and hard-to-reach locations in other countries.

For beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights, FlyCart 30 can communicate with a remote controller as far as 12 miles away. But its unique Dual Operator mode extends that range by allowing pilots to transfer control of the drone with the push of a button.

During flight, a suite of sensors and visual systems can detect obstacles in multiple directions, in all weather conditions, day or night. A built-in ADS-B receiver alerts crewed aircraft of the drone’s approach. And in case of emergency, an integrated parachute can deploy at low altitude for a soft landing—or the drone can automatically pick an alternate landing site.

FlyCart 30 comes in two configurations, both of which can fold down for transport in a “standard-sized vehicle.” In cargo mode, payloads are placed in a 70-liter case built from material commonly found in the reusable packaging industry. Capable of being installed or removed in under three minutes, the case includes weight and center of gravity sensors to prevent swaying in the air.

Customers can also opt for winch mode, which is ideal for deliveries to inconvenient landing sites. A winch crane can carry up to 88 pounds of cargo, releasing it automatically at the delivery location on a 65-foot cable. Augmented reality projection is used to guide the cable to the landing point.

A FlyCart 30 purchase comes with the aircraft, batteries, charging hub with cables, and DJI’s RC Plus remote controller. In addition, FlyCart can be linked with the company’s DeliveryHub software, which provides operation planning, status monitoring, team resource management, and data collection and analysis.

Viewable on the RC controller is Pilot 2, another software that displays real time information on flight status, cargo status, battery power level, and more. Pilot 2 also alerts operators of potential risks along the flight path and generates alternate landing points in the case of extreme weather or other abnormal conditions. From the controller, users can even view flights live through the drone’s first-person view gimbal camera.

The Outlook

DJI has held the pole position in consumer drones for nearly a decade. The company could continue to bring in billions of dollars in annual revenue by specializing in that area. But the launch of drone delivery signals the firm’s ambitions run deeper.

Rather than selling exclusively to individual hobbyists, DJI can now reach enterprise customers such as retailers or medical organizations. That segment is less susceptible to macroeconomic swings and could help the company stabilize revenue. Skydio, the largest consumer drone company in the U.S., recently shuttered its consumer business entirely, electing instead to pursue enterprise customers.

Working in DJI’s favor is its already established international network of dealers and customers. The firm has become a trusted brand in the consumer drone space, and many companies and organizations—which could become drone delivery customers—are already familiar with DJI systems and interfaces. Some of them already use the company’s other drones.

A potential concern, however, is FlyCart 30’s niche. The drone doesn’t fit neatly into a single category: its limited range and flight time suggest it will hone in on the last mile, but its size and weight make it better suited to deliver heavy cargo rather than food and groceries. Medical payloads could be a good fit (DJI has said as much) but the company would need to compete with Zipline, whose drones can fly 190 miles on a single charge. As of January, Zipline has completed nearly 900,000 deliveries worldwide.

In addition, FlyCart 30’s 143 pound empty weight with both batteries installed would exceed the FAA’s limits for small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS). To fly in the U.S., DJI would require type certification or an exemption to Section 44807 of Title 49 of U.S. Code. The European Union and New Zealand, two other emerging drone delivery markets, have similar rules.

DJI may be able to overcome those restrictions in other foreign countries, but breaking into the U.S. market could be challenging. For years, American lawmakers have targeted it and other Chinese manufacturers with bans, though these only restrict the technology at the federal level. However, a few states have already shown willingness to pass their own bans.

Further, U.S. lawmakers are pushing legislation that would extend DJI bans to the consumer level, restricting hobbyists and potentially even businesses from flying the drones. But DJI has made one thing very clear: Global scale, not regional, is the objective.

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Walmart—which uses drones from partners such as Zipline and Wing to deliver within minutes to customers nationwide—on Tuesday said it would add 1.8 million households to its Dallas-Fort Worth service area, which will soon cover three-quarters of the area’s population. According to the retailer, no U.S. company has offered drone delivery to as many households in a single market.

The expansion adds stores in 30 towns and municipalities to Walmart’s existing Dallas-Fort Worth service, which itself is part of a network spanning nearly 40 hubs in seven states. 

Zipline and Wing, both of which were recently approved by the FAA to fly their drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of a visual observer, will power the deliveries. The companies’ new permissions—part of an FAA push to grow the industry within the U.S.—will allow them to fly further than previously permitted.

“Customers will have access to a broad assortment of items from Walmart available for delivery to their home in just minutes,” said Prathibha Rajashekhar, senior vice president of innovation and automation for Walmart U.S. “Drone delivery is not just a concept of the future, it’s happening now and will soon be a reality for millions of additional Texans.”

Walmart said Dallas-Fort Worth customers can expect the buzzing aircraft to arrive in as little as 10 minutes but no more than 30. Across two years of trials, the retailer has completed more than 20,000 deliveries of items such as snacks, beverages, and cold medicines, including fragile cargo such as eggs. Thousands of items are eligible for drone delivery, but customers must be within 10 miles of a store offering the service.

With the expansion, Dallas-Fort Worth is shaping up to be Walmart’s largest U.S. drone delivery market initially. But the retailer has an additional 4,700 stores located within 10 miles of 90 percent of the U.S. population, adding plenty of room for scale when the time comes.

Zipline, which has worked with Walmart since 2021, is actually the world’s largest drone delivery provider by sheer volume. The company has flown more than 60 million commercial miles, completing 880,000 deliveries in the process. Wing, which ranks second on the list, has made about 350,000 deliveries, according to its website.

Tuesday’s announcement added more food and convenience delivery to Zipline’s profile, which largely comprises medical shipments of blood, vaccines, and other critical cargo. The company said the expansion will allow it to serve 1,000 times as many Walmart customers. For the past two years, it’s delivered from a store in Arkansas, where it says customers now perceive operations as “totally normal.”

By the time Zipline and Walmart begin an operational pilot later this year, the company expects to have completed tens of thousands of trials with Platform 2 (P2), its next-generation delivery system. 

Among other things, P2 will introduce a modified drone, docking, charging, and delivery infrastructure for businesses, and an autonomous droid capable of guiding packages to spaces as small as a patio table. It aims to automate more tasks for customers and enable more precise drop-offs than the company’s existing system, which uses a parachute.

P2 is expected to roll out across the U.S. this year—including in Dallas-Fort Worth following pilot flights with Walmart.

“Autonomous delivery is finally ready for national scale in the U.S.” said Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, co-founder and CEO of Zipline. “Zipline is excited to enable Walmart’s vision of providing customer delivery so fast it feels like teleportation…We’re excited for folks across Dallas-Fort Worth to experience delivery that is seven times as fast, zero emissions, and whisper quiet.”

Like Zipline, Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, has spent the past few years developing its U.S. network with Walmart.

The company has four years of commercial residential service under its belt, including more than a year and a half in DFW. Those operations recently ramped up with deliveries out of two Walmart Supercenters in the suburbs of Frisco and Lewisville, reaching a combined 60,000 households. Wing expects its next expansion to be completed within the year and add “millions” of customers.

In four months of service in Dallas-Fort Worth with Walmart, customers have been clamoring for more, with the top 25 percent of customers ordering twice per week on average, Wing said. Sustainability is a proposition to customers, but so is speed—the company’s drones typically spend just five minutes in the air during a delivery.

Now, range could become a selling point. With its recent FAA approval, Wing can expand its delivery zone beyond the previously enforced 6-mile radius. That means each of its delivery sites will be able to reach more customers.

“Our first few months delivering to Walmart customers have made it clear: Demand for drone delivery is real,” said Wing CEO Adam Woodworth. “The response has been incredible from customers ordering drone delivery from Walmart every day, and it’s a testament to our partnership that we’re now expanding our footprint to bring this innovative delivery option to millions of Texans. If this milestone is any indication, we believe 2024 is the year of drone delivery.”

Zipline and Wing were among the first U.S. firms to receive FAA Part 135 air carrier approval, which allows them to fly drones commercially. Only five companies in the space have those permissions, with the others being Amazon Prime Air, UPS Flight Forward, and Causey Aviation Unmanned, the partner of another Walmart collaborator, Israeli manufacturer Flytrex.

Drone delivery has not quite reached the mass adoption phase. But with Walmart’s massive expansion, that point is beginning to enter focus.

The key to scale will be the finalization of drone delivery regulations, which are still being developed. The FAA, for example, has proposed final rules for BVLOS operations and is coordinating with industry stakeholders to get it on the books. Until that happens, companies will need to rely on waivers like Zipline or Wing’s to start flying.

Those early operations—Walmart’s among them—will help the FAA learn what restrictions may need to be added, removed, or modified. In the meantime, less established competitors will continue to languish under heavy limitations. But the hope is that Walmart, Zipline, and Wing can give the FAA the confidence to open things up for the rest of the industry.

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