Drone Delivery

Scotland’s bid to launch what it says will be the world’s first nation-wide medical drone delivery network has taken another step forward with the completion of its first live trial flight near Glasgow.

Matternet, the first non-military drone maker to achieve standard Type Certification and Production Certification by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), has announced a significant development. The company has built a new, more efficient variant of its M2 delivery drone and it has managed to get an FAA Type Certificate approval for that as well.

Europe’s largest drone delivery operator, Manna Drone Delivery, says it has officially commenced US operations by delivering Halloween candy to families in the Dallas/Fort Worth area by drone.

Aerial food delivery specialist Flytrex has announced authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) permitting it to perform beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flights in markets across the US, an exemption to operate above homes and people without ground observers it plans to use in accelerated scaling of its activities.

Leading instant logistics and UAV transport specialist Zipline has announced a new partnership with healthcare giant Cleveland Clinic involving an evolving operation that will begin with drone delivery of medication directly to patients’ homes.

France’s budding UAV services startup Delivrone has teamed up with one of Europe’s most ambitious and fast-moving drone delivery companies, RigiTech, to initiate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) missions between French hospitals – including rare nighttime flights.

Amazon says it is expanding its Prime Air drone delivery system to international locations, and adding a third city in the United States by the end of next year.

Authorities in the UK are seeking to battle what they decry as increasing drone deliveries of contraband to prisons in a manner that hasn’t been terribly effective in other countries before: passing new legislation to broaden bans on what’s already illegal activity, rather than investing in the specialized detection and mitigation tech required to detect and neutralize invasive UAVs en route to jails.

Amazon is now offering customers the option to get medicines delivered to their homes via drone within 60 minutes of their order with Amazon Pharmacy, the retail giant’s online prescription drug store. Here’s everything you need to know…

Global UAV company Skyports Drone Services is preparing to expand both its geographical footprint and the specialized aerial fleet it uses during trials of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) deliveries across the Yeosu City area of South Korea, where it will deploy Swiss startup RigiTech craft for the first time.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority has greenlit six trial projects that would help to make beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone flights and medical drone delivery an everyday reality in the country.

DroneUp has launched the first of its dedicated drone deliveries of medicine to patients’ homes in eastern Virginia – the first in a potentially broad range of aerial activities organized by a collective of businesses, universities, and non-profit associations to improve healthcare in the region.

In an application that fails to qualify – by several time zones – for the vaunted “drones for good” category, a startup in Monaco has celebrated its maiden mission of delivering a luxury payload, including Champagne worth several hundred dollars, to an offshore luxury super yacht.

Deliveries of banned materials to prison inmates by drone have gotten more ambitious and audacious around the world as their frequency multiplied, but the aerial smuggling ring police in western France broke up stands out for its quasi-startup organization and efficiency.

Innovative Swiss UAV-glider company Jedsy is partnering with German medical group Asklepios Kliniken in a project to create a broad network of drone delivery routes between hospitals and labs that analyze patient blood, tissue, and other samples.

Zipline, which established its reputation as the leader in drone instant logistics services by quickly transporting medical supplies in nations around the globe, is now reinforcing its commercial UAV activities through a new partnership delivering meals for restaurant chain Mendocino Farms in western US states, using its new P2 platform.

The UK UAV company Skyports Drone Services didn’t wait long to put its decision to acquire Pyka heavy-lift cargo craft into action, announcing this week it had successfully completed a trial of their aerial applications during a Royal Navy tech demonstration event.

Drone delivery company Wingcopter has started a pilot project that would see drones delivering everyday goods for the first time in Germany.

DJI has filed paperwork with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to bring its first-ever delivery drone, FlyCart 30, to North America. The drone was first unveiled in China in August 2023.

Payloads aboard drones used to drop contraband into prisons around the world usually comprise drugs, tobacco, and cellphones, though one curiously creative – and now definitely busted – trio in Australia decided to diversify its illicit recreational cargo by adding a USB drive filled with porn to the mix.

A French tech startup is to looking to speed the processing of medical analyses – and resulting treatment – by delivering patient samples between medical facilities using drones for a group of hospitals in the country’s Normandy region.