Drone Delivery

Innovative Swedish drone delivery company Aerit is no more, having filed for bankruptcy after struggling to secure additional investment needed to continue operating.

The Smithsonian announced just before “May the Fourth” that it has added a Boeing Cargo Air Vehicle to its collection at the National Air and Space Museum. The drone, dressed up to look like a Star Wars X-Wing, was used to fly the first commercial operation of a “large eVTOL aircraft,” which took place at Disney World back in 2019.

Drone autopilot and component manufacturer Embention says it has entered into a strategic partnership with Amazon to support the Prime Air drone delivery initiative. More specifically, Embention will provide essential safety hardware and software for Prime Air drones.

Amazon is calling it quits on Prime Air services in one of the two cities where they launched their drone delivery program back in 2022. The news of the Lockeford, California, delivery site shutdown comes on the same day the company announced a new aerial initiative in Arizona’s West Valley area.

Autonomous drone delivery startup Zipline says it has made one million commercial deliveries to customers. It’s a feat that would have taken a human pilot 120 years of flying! In addition, the company has announced new partnerships with Panera Bread, Memorial Hermann Health System, and Jet’s Pizza starting in the greater Seattle, Houston, and Detroit metro areas respectively.

Commercial aerial logistics solutions provider A2Z Drone Delivery has released several new safety features for its popular smart drone winch RDS2. And alongside the software-enabled features, that can be accessed via a firmware update, the company is also releasing a new weatherproof cover for the winch as well as a new auto-releasing bag hook able to deposit packages without a recipient awaiting the 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.

Enjoy the podcast? Shop DJI, Autel, or other drones at Amazon to support The Buzz!