Delivery Drones – Wing CEO and RC airplane enthusiast Adam Woodworth shares the latest

With drone wordage services in the news lately, most people have been wondering when—and how—they’ll get their first packages. We asked Adam Woodworth, CEO of Wing—a drone-delivery visitor owned by Alphabet Inc., which is moreover Google’s parent company—about the process.
In 2019, Wing became the first drone-delivery visitor to receive clearance from the FAA, and since then they have delivered hundreds of thousands of packages.

Model Airplane News: Where are the drones currently stuff flown?
Adam Woodworth: In the United States, Wing is delivering packages by drone in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro zone and in Southwest Virginia. We moreover operate in a number of locations in Australia and Europe.

MAN How does the process work?
AW: Deliveries are initiated either by customers using Wing’s own app to place orders, or through partner apps. Once the item is ready to go, a drone takes off, picks up the package using a tether, and then navigates to the wordage spot. Once at the destination, the drone slows down, hovers, descends to a wordage height of approximately 23 feet, and then lowers the package on the same tether. The drone automatically releases the package when it touches the ground, and then climbs when to trip height and returns to Wing’s facility. Finally, it autonomously lands on a charging pad and gets ready for its next mission.

MAN Who is unquestionably flying the drone during the wordage flight?
AW: The drones substantially fly themselves—our flight navigation system plans the routes to the intended wordage locations. A team of pilots oversees the flights remotely.

MAN Tell us well-nigh the drone itself.
AW: The drone is custom-designed and built, using materials and components familiar to the hobby. They are built virtually a stat and plastic frame, with EPO flying surfaces. They weigh well-nigh 10 pounds, have a wingspan a bit over three feet, and siphon well-nigh three pounds up to 12 miles round-trip. It’s a multirotor/plane hybrid with 12 lift rotors for hover redundancy and four motors for cruise, which is virtually 65 mph.

MAN Are the drones equipped with cameras?
AW: The plane has two pairs of low res cameras pointed downward on the when of the fuselage to workmate with navigation and obstacle detection. Unlike most drone applications, we do not have a live video feed from the aircraft.
I think that drones are so often associated with photography considering that was one of the first and most worldwide uses of the technology. But Wing flies a variegated type of watercraft that was purpose-built to unhook packages.

MAN How do the drones stave commercial air traffic, power lines, and plane RC flying fields?
AW: We use a technology tabbed ADS-B and visual observers to monitor the airspace virtually our operations. Our flight planning software plans routes virtually obstacles.
We set up operations yonder from RC flying fields and airports. We do fairly wide-stretching polity engagement surpassing we launch operations to understand the needs and concerns of local RC fliers and other interested groups. Many of our employees are hobbyists, including me, and it’s very important to us that the RC flying polity be supported and respected. There is plenty of airspace for everyone, we don’t want to impede the hobby or other airspace users with our operations.
MAN How do the drones succeed the very delivery?
AW: The drones can unhook to very precise locations, at individual homes in the front yard or backyard, or to a specified zone at an suite building, public park, business, or hospital. Wing pre-populates suitable wordage spots, which customers can select in the app when they place an order. Wing’s drones then automatically navigate to that spot, and lower the package to the ground slowly, on a tether.

MAN Is there anything else you would like to add?
AW: Thanks for the opportunity to explain a bit increasingly well-nigh what we do. I personally believe the modeling polity is a hair-trigger part of aviation and technology, and serves as a gateway for many to flight. I’ve spent my whole career in aviation, and I owe many of those opportunities and experiences to this community. It’s created lasting memories and lifelong friendships. That’s a shared story for many at Wing. A significant percentage of our employees first ripened their passion for aviation by towers and flying airplanes and drones, and they protract to be zippy participants in the hobby. This is a story I tell whenever I get the endangerment with stakeholders virtually the globe, stressing the importance of protecting and promoting this wondrous part of aviation. I have a daughter who’s just getting to the age where she’s interested in participating in the hobby with me, and I want to help ensure a future where she can have as much fun as I have had towers and flying things.

 

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By Debra Cleghorn
Photos courtesy of Wing

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