Wing’s delivery drone is one of the safest ways to transport items. Our aircraft have flown tens of thousands of flights, and we’ve been delivering everyday goods to doorsteps, driveways, and backyards. Wing complies with all regulations in each area we operate, and adheres to an extremely rigorous safety framework. We have multiple levels of redundancy built into our aircraft and operations, and these have been thoroughly tested throughout the 80,000 test flights we’ve conducted.

Your items can be quickly delivered to you by Wing, at a fraction of the carbon emissions generated by the delivery of items by cars or trucks. In Australia’s ACT territory (pop. 419,200), it is estimated that by 2030 drone delivery could reduce traffic congestion by up to 35 million vehicle kilometres each year. With road transportation accounting for 69% of the territory’s greenhouse gas emissions, Wing provides a helpful source of emissions reductions.

With Wing, we help bring neighborhoods closer together. We’re partnering with local businesses to help them deliver goods to community members within minutes. We strive to partner with community members, through in-person engagement in cities where we fly, to understand the needs of each person. We also welcome feedback and ideas through our website contact form, here.

After a customer places an order, our unmanned traffic management (UTM) software plans a route designed to avoid obstacles and indicates to the aircraft that it is safe to fly to the customer’s delivery location. The aircraft automatically monitors its systems to make sure it is safe to fly and will prevent takeoff or automatically take contingency actions if a problem is detected. Our trained pilots oversee everything to make sure it’s operating smoothly.

Our customers do not interact directly with the delivery drone. The aircraft hovers around 7 metres (23 feet) above the ground and lowers the package to the ground slowly, attached to a tether. We ask customers to remain 2 metres (6.5 feet) away from the package drop-off point to avoid interfering with the delivery process. After the package reaches the ground, it is released from the tether. The drone reels in the tether and flies away, and the customer can pick up the package.

Our drones are quieter than a range of noises you would experience in a suburb but they make a unique sound that people are unlikely to be familiar with. We’ve recently developed new propellers that emit a quieter, lower pitched sound that blend in better with other sounds in a residential neighborhood, like cars driving by in the street.

Wing’s delivery drones use cameras for safety purposes to improve our navigation accuracy, and as a backup in the event GPS is unavailable. The camera is downward facing and collects low resolution, greyscale images of the ground or ground features, and does not transmit images in real time.

We have tested our technology and various aspects of our delivery system extensively in Australia, Europe and the U.S. Wing has conducted more than 80,000 test flights since 2013, and thousands of on-demand deliveries to users as part of its commercial trials.

You can check out images of our aircraft, and learn about our delivery process at wing.com/howdeliveryworks.

Wing’s aircraft is designed to deliver small packages that weigh approximately 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) or less. We’ve delivered fresh foods, medicines, household items and tools to users thus far, and we hope to deliver any items that communities find useful in the future.