Alphabet’s Wing starts the fist Commercial Drone delivery service in America, ahead of Amazon and Uber

Wing, an offshoot of Google parent company Alphabet, officially launched its drone delivery service Friday, delivering a FedEx package through the air from a distribution center to a consumer’s home in Christiansburg, Virginia, according to the company’s medium blog.

The blog goes on to explain “Wing’s collaborators on this service — FedEx Express, Walgreens, and local Virginia retailer Sugar Magnolia — are the first businesses in the United States to offer this form of local air delivery to customers. FedEx is completing the first scheduled e-commerce drone delivery in American history today, and becomes the first company in the United States to connect online retailers to last-mile drone delivery services. Building on a heritage of innovation, today Walgreens is also making aviation history by completing the first on-demand, commercial drone delivery directly to a home in the U.S. Through this pilot, Walgreens will be the first U.S. retailer to provide customers with on-demand drone deliveries of over-the counter medications and convenience items.”

According to a Business Wire report, Wing became the first company to receive Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) approval for door-to-door drone delivery, beating Amazon’s Prime Air, which is scheduled to begin deliveries on December 7, and Uber Eats’ drone delivery program to market.

A Washington Post article, describes this as “history in the making”:

Retirees Susie and Paul Sensmeier stood outside of their front door Friday, watching as a small drone zipped over their neighborhood and headed for their rambler.

The aircraft approached with a high-pitched whine, hovered in the clear sky above their front lawn and gently lowered a FedEx box containing a new puffy vest for Susie.

Across the street, a senior FedEx executive looked on. He’d brought his children to watch, he said, history being made.

In Christiansburg, the small Virginia town chosen as Wing’s test location, 22,000 residents can order products normally shipped by FedEx including drugs from Walgreens and a selection of candy from a local business which will arrive via drone. It should be noted that in this pilot, although the last mile of delivery of the birthday present was completed by a drone, the majority of the delivery was managed by a FedEx truck.

More about this :

  • Medium –  Wing Launches America’s First Commercial Drone Delivery Service to Homes in Christiansburg, Virginia 
  • Washington Post – Virginia town becomes home to nation’s first drone package delivery service
  • Newsweek – ALPHABET’S WING BEGINS FIRST COMMERCIAL DRONE DELIVERY SERVICE IN U.S
  • Yahoo – Google completes first drone delivery in the US
  • Amazon’s Prime Air

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