Alphabet’s Wing drone delivery service is taking off in the US.
The Google subsidiary is launching a pilot program this fall in Christiansburg, Va.
Starting next month, residents of the New River Valley region in Southwest Virginia can collect parcels from FedEx Express, Walgreens, and local retailer Sugar Magnolia via unmanned aerial vehicles.
The trial, according to a company blog post, will “demonstrate the benefits of drone delivery by improving access to healthcare products, creating new avenues of growth for local businesses, and exploring ways to enhance efficiency of last-mile delivery service.”
In April, Wing became the first drone operator to receive air carrier certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. Now it’s gearing up for the most advanced drone delivery trial in the US to date.
This fall’s practice runs will be conducted as part of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Pilot Program.
Wing designed customized boxes for its delivery drones to transport goods (via Wing)
While the drones can fly autonomously, Wing will have certified pilots on the ground, ready to take control if necessary.
The aircraft—tested more than 80,000 times—are also built with redundancies like backup batteries, multiple hover motors, and various navigation systems.
Customized boxes will be used to transport deliveries—from over-the-counter medicine to packaged presents to last-minute party supplies—directly to recipients’ homes.
In 2016, New River Valley played host to the then-largest drone delivery demonstration in the United States: Wing and Virginia Tech distributed hundreds of Chipotle orders to university staff and students.
Christiansburg was selected as the pilot location in part due to Wing’s ongoing partnership with VT’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, located nearly Blacksburg.
Local residents can sign up online to join the Early Flyer waitlist and be among the first to know when (and where) Wing drones deliver.
More on Geek.com:
- DHL Kicks Off Regular Autonomous Drone Deliveries in China
- Amazon’s Prime Air Drone Will Make Same-Day Deliveries
- UPS Wants to Bring Drone Deliveries to U.S. Hospitals
