Drone deliveries: Wing to launch new home-delivery drone service for Australia, offering flying food

Australia is poised to become the leading testbed for drone home-delivery services as Wing launches a new service in Queensland after starting in Canberra. SEE HOW IT WORKS

Flying roast chickens, hot coffee, milk, bread and screwdrivers will drop from the air into Queensland backyards in a world-first drone delivery trial expected to launch within weeks.

Alphabet-owned company Wing will unveil its new Australian drone service on Sunday, extending its reach from an early trial in Canberra and making Australia the first country in the world to use home delivery drones in two states.

And the company’s chief executive said the drone services were likely to extend into more Australian regions in future, with the country hand-picked as a testbed for drone services worldwide.

Alphabet has been testing its Project Wing drone deliveries in areas around Canberra. Picture: Supplied

Wing’s latest drone venture will see a fleet of “tens of drones” deliver goods to houses in the Logan suburbs of Crestmead and Marsden.

Households in its ‘Early Flyer’ program would be able to order a range of goods from a coffee shop, grocery store, and hardware outlet, with drone delivery initially offered free of charge and within just minutes of placing an order.

The goods would include everything from hot roasted chickens to cold milk, Wing Australian operations head Terrance Bouldin-Johnson said, and its Canberra record for brewing and delivering a coffee stood at just three minutes.

Google’s autonomous drone in the air. Picture: Supplied

Wing chief executive James Ryan Burgess told News Corp the company chose Queensland’s Logan area due to its growing population, large number of young families, and housing density.

But he said Wing was committed to taking to the skies in other parts of Australia in future as Aussies had proven keen to try the technology and safety regulators were open to testing it.

“This will be the most advanced drone delivery service in Australia but it’s also the best in the world,” he said.

“Australia will always have our most advanced drone technology, and we will take what we learn in Australia and use it around the world.”

Mr Burgess said Wing would hold a number of drone demonstrations in the local area before starting flights “in the coming weeks”.

Alphabet has been testing its Project Wing drone deliveries in areas around Canberra. Picture: Supplied

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Wing delivery drones typically fly at a height of 60m, he said, could carry up to 1.5kg of goods, and lowered packages to areas in front or backyards using a winch while hovering 7m off the ground.

Civil Aviation and Safety Authority spokesman Peter Gibson said he expected the regulator would grant Wing approval to fly its fleet of drones in Logan shortly, as the company had already proven its technology was safe in Canberra trials over the past two years.

“We know the drones work, the systems work, we’ve just had to assess the safety of the operation in a new location, where the drones will be based, and how the system has been replicated in the new location, so that’s what we’ve been doing,” he said.

Maz Rizk, owner of the Friendly Grocer Crestmead that will participate in the trial, said he expected the drone service to become “the latest trendy thing,” taking over from the likes of UberEats and MenuLog deliveries.

He said the company had already looked at what products it could safely deliver by drone, including milk, bread, tomato sauce and hot chickens.

But while he said some might try drone deliveries out of novelty, they could be genuinely handy too.

“If someone is at home by themselves with a small baby and they run out of nappies or formula, they‘ll be able to just order it online and the drone will drop it off at their door,” he said.

“If their partner works and they have no access to a car, that’s an added cost that this could save them.”

Australians can sign up to trial the technology at wing.com/australia.

Originally published as Drone deliveries: Wing to launch new home-delivery drone service for Australia, offering flying food