Bloomberg.com has announced that Wing Aviation LLC, an offshoot of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, is the first in the race to get approval to take flight in the US for package delivery. The company has received its certification from U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Transportation, similar to what a small airline needs to operate.
The “Wing” transport is part helicopter and part plane, and can travel at speeds upwards of 75 mph.
The drone package delivery program will launch in two rural communities in Virginia in coming months, according to Bloomberg.
The green light certification from the FAA means that other companies will surely be following suit, and our skies could be filled with delivery drones within a couple of years.
But it’s still going to take a while for drone package delivery companies to earn additional wings through the FAA, which are needed to service residents and businesses in urban areas. In order to move forward with drone deliveries to heavily populated cities, a company would have to get the go ahead from the FAA to conduct “flights over people”, which has not happened as of yet. A lot of what takes place in Virginia in coming months will be a good predictor of what we can expect to see happen down the road… or in the sky in this case.
Lead image: By Buffalo cartoonist David Corbett. Cartoon presented by Hyatts – All Things Creative.