The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given its stamp of approval to the experimental service, which will be the most extensive test of drone deliveries in the US and will help contribute data to the FAA’s ongoing research on the technology.
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The pilot program marks a turning point for Alphabet’s Project Wing division, giving the team ample room to experiment with airborne burrito deliveries in one of the first commercial programs of its kind to be greenlit by the US Federal Aviation Authority.
Project Wing will use self-guided hybrids that can fly like a plane or hover like a helicopter.
“The commercial use of drones for package and food delivery in US airspace is rapidly becoming a reality”, Sen.
The drones, which will pick up deliveries from a nearby Chipotle food truck, will hover overhead and use a winch to lower the food to students at the Blacksburg, Va., school. The agency on August 29 instituted broad new regulations for commercial drones.
An FAA rule went into effect last month permitting small commercial drone use, but the regulation does not permit flights over people, at nighttime or beyond the visual line of sight, though drone operators can apply for waivers.
The burrito-bearing aircraft will be flown by automation, but human pilots will be standing by to take control if necessary to comply with FAA rules, he said. So active participants will be shielded appropriately, according to Alphabet. NASA is working with Project Wing and other companies to develop the framework for such a system.
Project Wing said in a press release that the goal is to test navigation performance, timing accuracy and how well the food endures the journey. Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands told Bloomberg, adding that the school chose to take part to make their mark in new transportation technology.
“It sounds simple, but it’s not”, Sands said.
“This is the most complex delivery flight operation that I am aware of that’s occurred on USA soil”, said the program’s director, Mark Blanks, to Bloomberg, who first reported the story. “There are a lot of things to work out from a safety point of view and a policy point of view”.
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“This is the most complex delivery flight operation that I am aware of that’s occurred on USA soil”, Blanks said.
