Wing drone makes (demo) delivery to Colorado’s Coors Field

Silicon giant Alphabet’s Wing drone delivery company has passed several significant milestones in developing its operations around the world over the last year, but now it’s boasting an accomplishment with virtually zero chance of becoming a recurring use case – lowering a payload of peanuts and beer along the outfield foul lines of the Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field.

The company says it staged the Colorado exhibition flight earlier this month as a means of allaying any lingering doubts about delivery drones’ ability to operate safely, efficiently, and quickly in even the densest of urban settings. It was also an effort to show Denver residents the kinds of aerial services the company has been providing in several cities around the US and world – particularly its booming Australian market.

Read: Wing offers a peek of its drone delivery remote command centers

To be sure, the successful drone delivery trial will doubtless prove less impressive in the eyes of observers who may note Coors Field wasn’t hosting a game during the flight. But Wing’s head of marketing and communications, Jonathan Bass, says the location of the stadium in the heart of Colorado’s capital involved nearly as much difficulty as if the venue had been packed – rather than merely hosting about 1,000 people in the upper pavilion bars fêting the launch party of AUVSI’s annual conference.

“We chose Coors Field because it’s a particularly challenging environment,” Bass explains. “Coors Field sits in the middle of Denver, Colorado – one of the fastest growing cities in America. Any professional sports stadium – with stadium seating, jumbotrons, and the like – makes for a fun challenge. And at 5,200 feet, Coors Field sits a ‘mile high’ in North America’s second tallest city.”

But if the demonstration flight was at least partly what old-timers might term a publicity stunt (especially with hard core drone sector participants looking on), Bass says it was also an effort to prove Wing’s scaling plans and recently revealed delivery network hardware and strategy upgrade will offer services an increasing number of communities will be able to trust and rely on.

“As we prepare to vastly expand the reach of our drone delivery service with our Wing Delivery Network operating model announced earlier this year, we want to show just how ready the technology is to deliver nearly anywhere,” Bass adds. “So to all those who still wonder if this technology will ever be ready for urban, downtown environments: the Denver skyline in the background is one more image that says, ‘Wing was here’.” 

Read more: Wing Delivery Network frees drones from point-to-point operation for faster, flexible service

With over 300,00 deliveries notched up in Australia, Finland, and US towns in Virginia and Texas – and with preparational work afoot in Ireland – Wing is one of the most active drone transporters for retail food clients in the world. Bass says its plans to considerably scale that network further do not include serving fans in baseball parks – which would involve violating several zillion regulations in any case. 

Plus, in addition to not wanting to rob fans the pleasure of hailing passing vendors in the traditional manner, Wing’s margin for diversifying stadium fare would apparently be somewhat limited. After all, the brand of beer it delivered to Colorado’s Coors Field was – eh, figure it out.