WASHINGTON - Delivery drones are so fast they can zip a pint of ice cream to a customer’s driveway before it melts.
Yet the long-promised technology has been slow to take off in the United States. More than six years after the Federal Aviation Administration approved commercial home deliveries with drones, the service mostly has been confined to a few suburbs and rural areas, Dee-Ann Durbin writes for the Associated Press. Continue reading original article.
The Military & Aerospace Electronics take:
13 August 2025 - The long-awaited era of drone delivery in the United States may be close at hand, as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed new regulations to ease restrictions on beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. The change would reduce bureaucratic hurdles and enable a broader rollout of drone services.
Retailers such as Walmart, Amazon, and DoorDash, working with drone firms including Wing, Flytrex, and Zipline, are already testing deliveries in select regions. Walmart and Wing operate from 18 Dallas-area stores and plan to expand to 100 locations across Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando, and Tampa by next summer. Amazon, which launched in College Station, Texas, in late 2022, has extended service to suburban Phoenix and is preparing to enter Dallas, San Antonio, and Kansas City.
Wing’s drones carry up to 2.5 pounds for a 12-mile round trip and can be monitored by one pilot overseeing up to 32 units. Zipline’s drones can deliver up to 4 pounds over 120 miles. Orders are loaded at a launch site, fly autonomously using obstacle-avoidance routing, and lower packages via retractable cord while a pilot monitors.
Related: FAA allows BVLOS drone operation for UPS deliveries, uAvionix for detect-and-avoid testing
Related: New Honeywell technology for light drones increases range with hydrogen fuel cells
Related: FAA grants Cyberhawk nationwide BVLOS waiver to operate UAS remotely
Jamie Whitney, Senior Editor
Military + Aerospace Electronics
