Drone Delivery

Automated drone company Flyby has announced a pair of significant developments in its business expansion plans, with a launch of aerial food delivery activities coinciding with a $4 million infusion of seed financing.

Healthcare provider Michigan Medicine says it plans to more than double the number of prescriptions its in-house pharmacy fills each year by using the new quick drone delivery system Zipline revealed last month.

California-based drone delivery company Matternet says it has received a waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that allows it to operate up to 20 aircraft with one remote pilot.

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.

Japan Post is moving quickly with its plans to introduce mail drone delivery services in the country, and has staged its maiden parcel drop to a private home following the company’s first flight over a populated area.

Toronto-based Drone Delivery Canada announced the first sale of its Condor heavy-lift UAV in a deal with the government’s Transport Canada agency.

Leading US drone delivery company DroneUp is partnering with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in a program intended to encourage and assist students pursuing studies and careers in UAV activities.

Manna, a drone delivery startup with Irish roots, is expanding to the US market with strategic investment from Coca-Cola HBC, the bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company. Manna says it has partnered with multinational real estate development company Hillwood to initially serve 10,000 residents in Texas’ Dallas-Ft. Worth area.

World-leading instant logistics and drone delivery company Zipline has unveiled a major revision of its commercial transport network, featuring an entirely reconceived transport UAV and an equally autonomous payload droid that – once lowered to client destinations by a winch – can guide itself to an area for unloading as small as a patio table or steps up to a house.

The government of South Korea is launching a project to create a smart logistics infrastructure network designed to slash the time between customer orders and their delivery by drones and robotic vehicles to under an hour.

Europe’s first licensed drone delivery airline, Dronamics, said it has raised $40 million in pre-Series A funding for the launch of its innovative strategy of providing middle-mile aerial transport services in a sector that has largely focused on last-mile activities.

Logistics and transportation company Aramex says it has successfully tested drone and roadside bot deliveries in Dubai. These tests were conducted as part of the company’s “Future Delivery Program,” aimed at enhancing last-mile logistics using smart shipping solutions to enable quicker, more sustainable, and cost-effective deliveries.

Drone company Volatus Aerospace has been issued a drone cargo license by the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).

Despite recurring announcements with significant fanfare at various stages of the service’s very long awaited rollout, it appears Amazon drones aren’t actually delivering much – or often ­­– in the two communities where they were finally put into operation last December.

The drone services division of UK delivery and vertiport company Skyports has announced it will be integrating the heavy payload electric vertical takeoff and landing UAVs by manufacturer Pyka into its fleet, thereby considerably expanding the goods its craft can haul in a single flight.

Drone delivery company Flytrex will soon be moving to expand its South Carolina and Texas operations across other US states, after it received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 135 Certification to offer unscheduled, on-demand aerial services through its longtime partner, Causey Aviation Unmanned (CAU).

Another phase of drone development activity has been initiated in the UK, with the Open Skies Cornwall program assembling nearly a dozen partners to test use cases and recruit additional participants to facilitate regular UAV services along the southwest England peninsula.

San Francisco Bay Area cargo UAV developer MightyFly has unveiled the second generation of its hybrid-powered vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone, Cento, which it plans to produce and operate for end-to-end freight services on flights of up to 600 miles.

Swedish startup Everdrone has gotten the all-clear to extend its life-saving First on Scene Solutions activity using drones to speed automated external defibrillators (AED) and provide other support to first responders in Sweden’s vast Västra Götaland county.

For hundreds and thousands of people in the United States, 2022 was the year commercial drone delivery finally became a reality. Walmart expanded its drone delivery operations to 36 hubs spread across Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. Alphabet’s Wing began delivering to Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth area. Heck, even Amazon‘s drone delivery program finally took off in a couple of cities in California and Texas before the year came to a close.

The latest from CES 2023 is that Mitsubishi Electric is putting together a drone-based logistics operations management platform called AnyMile. This open marketplace, we are told, will bring together shippers, drone manufacturers, drone operators, and ancillary service providers onto a single platform, allowing them to easily schedule and manage cargo deliveries via drones.