drone deliveries

Dromamics, the world’s first drone delivery airline is setting an additional air transport precedent by partnering with Qatar Airways Cargo, forging the first global network linking the longer-haul routes of a major carrier with the smaller, more local destinations that the middle-mile UAV startup plans to serve.

Innovative UK drone startup Inteliports says it successfully completed a trial run of its GO UAV delivery concept, which is designed to group all functions of the takeoff, landing, flight navigation, and payload handling process into compact, automated modules that fit neatly into urban landscapes.

Italian enterprise UAV developer FlyingBasket has announced the biggest development in its seven-year existence with the commercialization of its FB3 heavy-lift drone, which is capable of hauling payloads of up to 100 kilograms in remote mountain settings and populated urban zones alike.

A UK court has handed a total of 31 years in jail time to a seven people who operated drone deliveries of banned items to a Manchester area prison, including drugs that a testifying expert estimated were worth as much as £1.7 million ($2.16 million). 

Israel-based hydrogen-powered UAV developer HevenDrones is keeping a very close eye on work in the UK toward creating a 165-mile “drone superhighway,” which is intended to enable a broadening range and rate of aerial activity and services across a huge swath of the nation. Although it is not yet involved in what are the still preliminary stages of that British project, HevenDrones CEO Bentzion Levinson says he believes the program’s potential for rapidly, radically transforming UAV systems, regulations, operation, and tech – including power sources like hydrogen permitting far longer flights – is enormous, and something he’d be keen to join when the time is right.

Fast-moving drone delivery startup Flytrex had an eventful 2022, during which it considerably expanded its zones of operation as well as its list of retailers and restaurant partners. Today the company released its annual barometer of activity showing a corresponding jump in clients served last year – a whopping seven-fold increase over 2021 to “21,350 orders” flown.

The UK-based UAV delivery specialist Skyports Drone Services has extended its activities in Japan through a successfully completed proof-of-concept trial transporting medical supplies between hospitals and clinics in Kaga City.

Google’s corporate cousin Wing Aviation has repeatedly innovated its methods of organizing and operating UAV transport of ordered goods between retailers and customers. Now it’s taking that to another level by devising reactive, pragmatic, and automated networks of delivery drones whose flexibility and increased efficiencies are what the company thinks will be key to massively scaling the activity.

Six months after getting mandatory approval from regulators, Swiss drone delivery company RigiTech began the first regular beyond visual line of sight (BVLOSL) operations in France on Monday, providing aerial shuttles of blood and biological samples between testing labs.

UK-based Skyports Drone Services is expanding its international operations in South Korea through a joint venture with local company Marine Drone Tech (MDT) and will initially work to launch specialized ship-to-shore UAV deliveries.

A new series of trials is set to begin in the UK today using drones to transport patient samples, medicines, and other materials between healthcare facilities – a specialized form of UAV deployment that’s swiftly multiplying around the globe.

Australian drone delivery and logistics company Swoop Aero is preparing to initiate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) services for New Zealand’s health care system, initially operating flights of lab samples between the South Island west coast towns of Westport and Greymouth.

Skyports Drone Services, a unit of UAV delivery operator and vertiport design group Skyports, is launching a campaign to train and employ workers to staff its rapidly growing activities across the globe, offering applicants an entry into what is looking to be one of the most promising growth sectors in coming decades.

Between the fanfare of initial announcements of intent, network planning, testing, regulatory approval, community consultation, and recurring teasers of looming launches, it can be a little difficult keeping current on the actual state of play in drone delivery activity – a haziness Walmart is now endeavoring to dissipate.

All evidence indicates that 2022 was a veritable boom year in the increasing traffic of drones flown to drop contraband into prisons around the world, with December closing out with reports of another suspected UAV delivery to a jail in Canada.

Newspapers worldwide have been decimated to near extinction by various disruptive technologies over the past decade, but a Finnish company is preparing to give local dailies a lift by assuring prompt delivery of papers to subscribers on secluded lake islands south of the city of Tampere.

Part of Dehli’s mass transit Metro Rail was shut down over the weekend after what was later reported to have been a medical delivery drone carrying vials of blood coming down on the tracks.

Melbourne-based international drone delivery company Swoop Aero is ending 2022 on a high note in its domestic market, receiving an Australian government grant to extend its operation in Southern Queensland into what the firm says will be the world’s largest aerial logistics network of its kind.

German fixed-wing drone manufacturer and aerial services company Wingcopter is partnering with the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences to test on-demand delivery of goods using UAVs and cargo e-bicycles to people in villages and other remote rural communities.

As part of its effort to scale its innovative drone delivery service business, Florida startup Zing has joined the Drone Logistics Ecosystem (DLE), which provides support to companies building a variety of UAV operations.

Instant logistics specialist Zipline has commenced regular commercial drone deliveries in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, following a series of test flights and approval by national regulators.