Wing, Alphabet’s drone unit, surpasses 200,000 commercial drone deliveries

Wing, Alphabet’s drone division, has surpassed 200,000 commercial air deliveries, excluding test flights, across global markets like Australia, Finland, and the United States since it began operations 2.5 years ago. In comparison, Zipline, a drone-delivery startup based in Rwanda and Ghana and focusing on delivering medical products like vaccines and blood, has completed over 225,000 commercial deliveries to date since beginning operations in 2016.

Zoom In: Wing’s expansion is fueled by its activities in Australia, reaching 30,000 deliveries just in the first two months of this year. Within Australia, Wing has partnerships with supermarkets and food chains like Friendly Grocer (offering rapid COVID-19 tests), Coles (Australia’s largest supermarket chain), St. John Ambulance Queensland (offering first aid kits), and even KFC, which it claims was its most-demanded merchant.

Quick Stats: The UAV flies at a maximum of 64.9 mph (104 km/h) and can carry up to 2.6 lbs (1.17 kg), making deliveries within 6 miles (9.6 km) and 6 minutes.

Zoom Out: Drone delivery is still in its infancy—Amazon alone sends out millions of shipments every day. However, it has the potential to be a low-emission method of speedily delivering packages. The FAA has regulated drone delivery in the US, but that’s slowly changing with companies beginning to do limited-scale operations. For example, in early February, Wing announced the launch of Walgreens delivery via drone for customers in Frisco and Little Elm, Texas.