Residents in Dallas and Fort Worth will soon be able to experience drone deliveries courtesy of Walgreens and Google Wing. The Wing company promises to deliver “small packages within 10 minutes,” NBC-5 states. DFW is a sort of trial period before the company expands to other urban areas.
Partnering with Walgreens, the drone system will be capable of landing in a “picnic blanket” sized area without obstructions. Jacob Demmitt, a marketing and communications official for Wing, told reporters about his high hopes for the program. “From the time you press order until there’s a package sitting at your house, it’s about 10 minutes. Our fastest delivery time ever was two minutes and 47 seconds,” he says about the flight times.
Walgreens was the first retailer to partner with Wing and will offer items such as medicine and food for drone delivery. Demmitt hopes to be able to fly Covid-19 testing kits to homes as well. A facility was created to house the drones, called Frisco Station, and will fly drones to the Eldoroda Walgreens and then to homes within four miles.
The process is fairly simple to place and receive your order. Demmitt told NBC-5, “If you want to place an order, download the Wing app from the app store or Google Play. You’re going to type in your address and the app will tell you right away whether or not you’re eligible, so if you live in the service area and you have a good spot at your house where we’re able to deliver the package.”
Demmitt claims that the drone process is safer for the environment and a more cost-effective method for delivery. Within the next few weeks, Wing states that they will conduct test flights near Frisco and Little Elm. Wing is the third company to receive FAA permission to fly a drone for delivery, with UPS and Amazon Prime Air already obtaining their permits.