Wing Aviation’s OpenSky app has received web app support in Chrome and Chromium-backed Edge, allowing for direct access and improved ease of use. OpenSky is currently only available in Australia as a result of Wing Aviation’s drone delivery program.
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Last week, Google’s Wing Aviation celebrated one year of drone deliveries in Logan, a local government area in Queensland, Australia. Wing also announced that it would be expanding its operations in Australia after it saw a 500% spike in deliveries during the pandemic.
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In a recent interview with Wing Aviation‘s head of Australian operations, Terrance Bouldin-Johnson explained how the company’s drones kept up with toilet paper demand during the pandemic lockdown period in Brisbane, Australia.
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Wing Aviation has announced it has also joined the UK Department for Transport to accelerate the development of the country’s UTM framework. The UK is looking to build an open unmanned traffic management (UTM) framework, moving away from the one-provider solution it currently uses with manned aircraft.
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Google’s Wing Aviation will soon be delivering library books to kids in Virginia using its delivery drones, thanks to middle-school librarian Kelly Passek. Ms. Passek was stunned at the speed her goods were delivered by Wing’s drones, resulting in her asking if books could be delivered.
An experimental service from drone delivery company Wing in Virginia is humming along. The company says that its volume of deliveries has more than doubled since the service began on October 18. Wing hasn’t disclosed the total number of deliveries, but the growth is a positive sign.
Today we hear from Wing Aviation about their support for ASTM Standard for Drone Remote ID. Wing shares the concerns most drone pilots have when it comes to privacy. They also suggest you should be able to select the best form of Remote ID that fits with your drone and flying circumstances. You can read the details below.
On Monday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposed new safety standards for specific drones for package deliveries in the Federal Register. The move is seen as a crucial step in allowing routine package deliveries by drones in the not too distant future.
Australian fashion brand LSKD has partnered with Wing Aviation to deliver its products using drones, leading the way for fashion brands around the world. The first orders began last Thursday, January 23, with customers ordering through the Wing app.
Wing Aviation, Google‘s take on drone delivery, is now venturing into the UK by starting a new holding company to possibly launch delivery drones. Formerly known as Google Wing, Wing Aviation made it out of Google X and took on drone delivery in east Australia and is currently in operation.
This morning the Wall Street Journal has a detailed article about deliveries by drone. They take a closer look at Amazon, Wing Aviation and Uber Technologies. For some reason, UPS with their Matternet drones are not getting that same amount of attention in this article, even though they recently were awarded a Part 135 certification by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Drones aren’t new, but delivery drones are, like the one created by Google’s Wing Aviation. Wing Aviation is taking drone deliveries head-on in Australia, Finland, and the US and is delivering goods right now by drone. As Wing Aviation and similar companies continue to invest in drones, drone delivery will become the next big thing for the commercial drone world.
Australia’s leader in drone deliveries, Wing Aviation, is working with the Australian government to keep drone pilots safe and flying legally with their new app, OpenSky. The app is set to replace the ‘Can I Fly There?’ app created by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). This is the first of many apps planned by Wing Aviation and CASA in preparation to keep Australian skies safe.
Google’s Wing Aviation receives the first FAA approval for a drone delivery service in the US. We already reported on this two weeks ago, saying that it would likely be Wing Aviation that would receive the first approval for a delivery service by drone. Today, the commercial drone operator received important government approval to operate as an airline, which gives it the legal authority to deliver products by drone to real customers. The company plans to start routine deliveries by drone in two rural communities in Virginia within the next few months.
A Federal Aviation Administration official said that the agency expects to award the first license to operate a drone delivery service next month. The spokesperson did not name the company that would be receiving the license but it seems that the only likely candidate is Wing Aviation LCC, a subsidiary from Google’s parent, Alphabet Inc. And, the same company that received approval from Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority to start making deliveries by drone in the northern suburbs of Canberra after a safety assessment.
Today, Google parent Alphabet Inc’s, Wing made its first delivery by drone in Cranberry, Australia after receiving approval from the country’s Civil Aviation Authority. Initially, the drone delivery service will only be available to 100 eligible homes in Grace, Palmerston, and Franklin. Later it will be slowly expanded to other customers in Harrison and Gungahlin.
Here’s a great piece in the Tech section of the NY Times [paywall], titled: “Skies aren’t clogged with drones, but don’t rule them out yet.” The article talks about deliveries by drone and the regulatory hurdles that still need to be overcome before we will see routine deliveries by drones. It talks specifically about Project Wing and the Hummingbird delivery drone from Google’s parent company Alphabet and also about Amazon’s Prime Air. See below for some of the highlights.
Drone identification (or remote ID) is the elephant in the room and needs to be resolved before large scale commercial drone operations will become possible. Alphabet’s Wing is currently testing a new identification system for airborne drones together with two other companies, AirMap Inc. and Kittyhawk. Contrary to DJI’s Aeroscope, this drone identification system uses different software application linked to a common web-based system.
Google parent Alphabet Inc’s Wing will launch drone deliveries in Finland in the Spring of 2019, according to a statement. The company announced that it will start to deliver goods and packages up to 3.3 pounds in a range of 6.2 miles in Helsinki. Last July, Wing recently became an independent company as it was spun out of Alphabet’s X research division. The company is led by James Ryan Burgess and has been actively testing with drone deliveries in Australia, delivering burritos among other things.
It has been a little quiet around Alphabet’s Project Wing, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been any progress. Over the last few years, Project Wing has made thousands of test flights and now they are ready to start making deliveries. The test market is Queanbeyan, South Eastern Australia, where two merchants have signed up for Project Wing. Guzman y Gomez, a Mexican food chain, and Chemist Warehouse, a chain of pharmacies. These companies will receive orders from test consumers, who’ve purchased items using the Project Wing app on their smartphones. Project Wing’s drones will then fly out and make the deliveries. The first burrito delivered by drone in Australia is now a fact. Believe it or not, this actually happened before when Google delivered Chipotle Burritos via drones to Virginia Tech college students in Blacksburg.
