Drone Delivery

UK drone delivery and services startup Inteliports is looking to facilitate the movement of goods between the Isle of Wight and English mainland with proposed UAV services, starting with a six-month trial.

Swiss drone delivery company RigiTech has taken another step closer to its objective to unleashing scalable aerial solutions across the planet with its Eiger UAV receiving Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval as remote ID compliant in the US.

Wingcopter, a German developer and operator of delivery drones, says it has applied and received acceptance for opening the type certification process of its Wingcopter 198 delivery drone in Japan. The development is important because it is the first time a foreign company’s drone has been accepted for type certification by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB). Successful approval would allow for commercial drone delivery missions in populated areas.

Europe-based online food delivery company foodora has announced a new offering that would transform the way customers receive their favorite meals in Sweden. The company has collaborated with Swedish telecom operator Tele2 to launch foodora Air, a service that would use drones based on 5G IoT (Internet of Things) technology to deliver food from restaurants.

Ohio-based logistics company Drone Express says it is working to bring drone delivery service to the city of Winston-Salem in North Carolina.

DroneUp, the company behind Walmart’s drone delivery services, has unveiled new technology to make drone delivery possible in hard-to-deliver areas like apartments and multi-dwelling communities.

Drone delivery company Wing is coming full circle as it imports its promising partnership with DoorDash from its booming Australian market back to the US town where it first began aerial transport services.

Confirming suspicions reported by DroneDJ last week citing video captures of Manna Drone Delivery UAVs transporting orders to people in Dublin’s Blanchardstown neighborhood, the startup has officially announced the launch of services in the 100,000-household area, as well as its first big restaurant client in the operation.

Though leaders like Zipline and Wing have generated most of the sector’s headlines in recent months, drone delivery pioneer SkyDrop has been quietly at work beneath the radar in continuing its seminal activities in the field. Today, however, the company announced its search for critical additional funding had come to an end, along with that its decade effort to develop specialized UAV transport hardware and systems.

Something is happening in neighborhoods of northwest Dublin that’s exciting residents – and it isn’t Ireland’s dominating performances in the ongoing Six Nations’ rugby tournament (or not only, anyway). Instead, people have been uploading videos of what could be the start of a long awaited move by Irish startup Manna Drone Delivery to roll out and scale regular services in the Irish capital.

Irrepressible UK startup Skyports Drone Services has landed what – in theory, anyway – could be a gold mine of near- and long-term UAV activity through its new partnership with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. 

A new initiative is set to introduce cross-border drone delivery services between Malaysia and Singapore. The focus will be on critical deliveries such as urgent documents, high-value electronics, medical supplies, and perishable foods.

Instant logistics pioneer Zipline is expanding its activities with US healthcare clients through a new contract to provide drone deliveries across Pennsylvania for patients and clinics of WellSpan Health.

Swiss drone manufacturing and aerial services company RigiTech is expanding its geographical and healthcare footprint with a new partnership in the Netherlands, where it will trial deployment and eventual integration of its UAVs into routine operation by medical transport and response units.

This week Yifei and Seth discuss the implications of Snap’s total recall of its Pixy “flying camera” and catch up with some of the delivery news from the week.

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It may not be ready to rival Amazon as a teaming marketplace where virtually any legal product can be bought and transported rapidly, but Germany’s LieferMichel drone delivery project spiriting goods to remote communities is starting to attract an impressive array of participating retailers.

A barrage of aerial and ground infrastructure trials have been held this month by the UK’s Open Skies Cornwall consortium, which is seeking to organize airspace into which regular UAV activities – including ship-to-shore operations – can be integrated above and around Falmouth Harbour, and enable future ship-to-shore and other operations. 

Specialized cargo drone developer MightyFly has unveiled the third generation of its Centro hybrid electric vertical takeoff and landing craft (eVTOL), equipped with additional features and performance enhancements the startup will demonstrate during events later this year.

Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has announced the extension of its ground-breaking UAV transportation activities from and around Edmonton International Airport – which at its launch was among the world’s first drone services at a major aviation platform, according to the firm, and the first in Canada.

Drone services company DroneUp has announced reception of what’s currently considered the brass ring of UAV operational capabilities with a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization to make beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) deliveries without the obligation of ground observers.

German UAV craft manufacturer and transport company Wingcopter has announced the extension and expansion of its delivery project providing groceries to small, remote villages using drones and e-bikes.