Wing and Zipline have partnered with Walmart to offer drone deliveries for “up to 75%” of DFW residents, along with providing services for other area businesses. Now the two innovators have received the first-ever FAA approval to operate drones beyond line of sight in the same shared airspace using new UAS traffic management technology (UTM).
Marking a first in U.S. aviation history, the Federal Aviation Administration has authorized Wing Aviation and Zipline International to fly commercial drones in the same Dallas-area airspace without visual observers.
In typical operations, a drone pilot must be able to see the aircraft at all times, the FAA said in a blog posted on Medium. But beginning in early 2023, Wing and Zipline began testing a new system called UAS traffic management technology, or UTM (UAS is short for unmanned aircraft systems.) The testing was initially done via simulations.
UTM leverages new advancements in air traffic technology and procedures that the FAA says could one day make Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flights “routine.”
The FAA authorizations will allow Wing and Zipline to deliver packages in the Dallas area while keeping their drones safely separated using the UTM system—managing the airspace themselves with “rigorous FAA safety oversight.”
“This is the first time the FAA has recognized a third-party to safely manage drone-to-drone interactions,” Praveen Raju, a program manager in the FAA’s NextGen Office, said in the blog post. “As always, safety comes first, and we required exhaustive research and testing before giving the green light.”
Dallas Innovates has been following the rise of drone deliveries in North Texas for years.
A lot of initial testing happened at Hillwood’s AllianceTexas Flight Test Center in Fort Worth in what’s known as the Mobility Innovation Zone (The MIZ), where advanced testing continues to this day.
In October 2021, Wing Aviation—Alphabet’s drone delivery sister company—launched a first-of-its-kind commercial drone service in a major U.S. metro out of Frisco Station north of Dallas. That same month, Wing began making on-demand deliveries from Walgreens drug stores in Little Elm and Frisco.
In March 2022, Israel-based Flytrex began delivering chicken wings by drone from a Chili’s restaurant in Granbury in a partnership with Dallas-based Brinker International. In flights that averaged 3 minutes 30 seconds, wings zoom over Lake Granbury, pause above their destination, and are lowered to the ground in a bright yellow bag, while the drone hovers 80 feet above.
In December 2022, Walmart began drone deliveries from 11 Dallas-area stores via a partnership with the company DroneUp. The drone hubs included Dallas, Garland, Mesquite, Murphy, Plano, Richardson, Rowlett, and The Colony.
In August 2023, Walmart said it was partnering with Wing to expand its drone delivery service in Dallas-Fort Worth by adding services to two area superstores.
In October 2023, Ireland-based Manna Drone Delivery kicked off its U.S. commercial operations from The Miz in Fort Worth, with drones that fly at 60 miles per hour at a height of around 200 feet. The first deliveries were food, beverages, and Halloween candy to residents of Hillwood’s Pecan Square development at the north end of the AllianceTexas MIZ.
