Bell Helicopter showcases a delivery drone that one day may well bring you your Amazon orders. The Fort Worth-based aviation company is aggressively moving into the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) space and introduced this week the all-electric APT, short for Automatic Pod Transport. A drone that could be used for military purposes or retailers like Amazon.
Mercedes-Benz recently completed more than 100 successful drone deliveries in Zurich, Switzerland. The unmanned aircraft delivered everyday items such as ground coffee and cellphones to Mercedes-Benz vans strategically located in the city. They were able to achieve a perfect safety record and more drone deliveries are planned for next year.
Transport Canada granted permission to the company Drone Delivery Canada to start testing drone deliveries in the Northern Canadian Communities of Moose Factory and Moosonee, Ontario. Toronto based Drone Delivery Canada made its first successful flights earlier this month in a partnership with Moose Cree First Nation. The partnership aims to establish a drone delivery service that would bring food, medical supplies and other necessities to the island of Moose Factory in the Moose River.
AZ Central reported that a drone attempting to deliver phones and drugs to inmates in the Buckeye prison in Arizona crashed in a yard only accessible to corrections officers. The Arizona Department of Corrections said on Thursday, that they are investigating the incident to determine who was behind the attempted contraband delivery by drone. According to corrections spokesman Andrew Wilder, this is the first known drone incident at an Arizona state prison. We have seen similarly attempted drone deliveries in Michigan, Louisiana, and Texas but also abroad in Australia, and Great Britain.
It has been a little quiet around Alphabet’s Project Wing, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any progress. Over the last few years, Project Wing has made thousands of test flights and now they are ready to start making deliveries. The test market is Queanbeyan, South Eastern Australia, where two merchants have signed up for Project Wing. Guzman y Gomez, a Mexican food chain, and Chemist Warehouse, a chain of pharmacies. These companies will receive orders from test consumers, who’ve purchased items using the Project Wing app on their smartphones. Project Wing’s drones will then fly out and make the deliveries. The first burrito delivered by drone in Australia is now a fact. Believe it or not, this actually happened before when Google delivered Chipotle Burritos via drones to Virginia Tech college students in Blacksburg.