Drone Delivery

Boots has become the first community pharmacy in the UK to transport prescription-only medicines using drones. The company is working with medical drone delivery startup Apian to facilitate a trial from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight.

Drone delivery company Flytrex announced it has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to double the size of areas it has been operating flights in North Carolina and Texas to two nautical miles, vastly increasing the potential number of households it can serve.

Last week, a survey tried to explain why some Lockeford residents have been feeling less than enthused about the arrival of Amazon drone deliveries in their city. But a fresh report that has come out today claims that a solid majority of Americans (58%) are in favor of drone delivery.

A consortium of national health care and UAV organizations in Scotland has secured funding for the launch of what it says will be the UK’s first country-wide drone medical delivery and distribution system. 

As part of an experimental delivery project by the Israeli Innovation Authority and the Ministry of Transport, a drone was used to transport medical tests including blood, urine, and coagulation samples.

Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is trialing 3-minute drone delivery services in Gapyeong, a quaint resort town in South Korea that has gained popularity because of its easy accessibility from Seoul. During the pilot program, which will run until the end of this year, there is no minimum order amount requirement, and delivery through drones is also being offered free of charge.

A survey of American adults has found that more than half of the population has little or no trust in drone delivery of products. A majority is also worried about data privacy issues related to drone deliveries, including those performed by Chinese aircraft.

European middle-mile drone delivery specialist Dronamics has chosen Australian aviation engineering and manufacturing company Quickstep as its first major partner in producing its automated Black Swan UAVs.

Alphabet subsidiary Wing is pulling the curtain back on how it plans to cater to different industries that may come knocking on its door looking for on-demand drone delivery.

Medical drone delivery pioneer Zipline is joining forces with MultiCare Health System, a not-for-profit healthcare organization in Washington, to launch the state’s first commercial drone deliveries.

San Francisco-based Elroy Air says it expects to deliver 100 autonomous cargo drones to Bristow, a leading provider of helicopter transportation to oil and gas customers, search and rescue (SAR), and aircraft support solutions to government and civil organizations.

Britain’s health service, NHS, says its cancer patients will be the first in the world to benefit from chemotherapy delivered by drone as part of a new trial.

Last-mile drone delivery company SkyDrop has completed production of the fleet of UAVs it will use to transport Domino’s pizza orders to customers in New Zealand, bringing it closer to the launch of services the two companies announced earlier this year.

Don’t look now, but Amazon’s beleaguered drone delivery program, Prime Air, is finally beginning to show signs of life. The company announced today that customers in Lockeford, California, will be among the first in the US to see Amazon drones delivering packages in their backyards.

Walmart-backed drone delivery operator DroneUp is joining forces with Israel-based FlightOps to scale up its operations and fly multiple drones in shared airspace from anywhere on the globe.

Pioneering drone delivery company Zipline is again striving to break new ground in – and for – autonomous UAV operation by unveiling its new, acoustic-based detect and avoid (DAA) platform allowing craft to identify and evade aerial risks from up to two miles away.

After over two years of continuous medical drone delivery operations across Africa, Australia’s Swoop Aero has completed a $16 million Series B funding round. But what’s even more impressive is that the logistics startup had the confidence to reject a $100 million takeover offer from a US-based defense company, halfway through the round.

Draganfly has announced a new delivery drone called Heavy Lift, which can transport packages weighing up to 67 pounds (30kg) to customers within 18 miles (30km). The Canadian drone manufacturer said over two decades of industry experience has gone into making this engineering feat possible. In addition, Draganfly has launched a long-range laser scanning system that can produce survey-grade point cloud data.

California-based drone logistics company Matternet, which has been working successfully with Swiss Post since 2017, says it will take over drone delivery operations from Switzerland’s national postal service starting January 1, 2023. In addition, Matternet will leverage its experience from operations in Switzerland to build Europe’s first city-wide drone delivery network.

Toronto-based drone logistics firm Drone Delivery Canada has received Transport Canada’s nod to conduct beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone delivery operations for the University of British Columbia’s Remote Communities Drone Transport Initiative (DTI) program.

Medical drone delivery operator Spright is teaming up with Latin America aviation company Synerjet in what they believe will be a major step toward expanding access to healthcare services across Brazil.