Alphabet’s Wing Unveils XXL and XXS Drones for More Delivery Options
Wing, the drone delivery division of Google’s strong company Alphabet, on Thursday unveiled a “library” of different aircraft designs tailored for larger and smaller loads than its New Hummingbird model.
Hummingbird models can carry bags weighing up to around 2.5 pounds and have made hundreds of thousands of deliveries so far. A beefier sibling, though, gets a bulbous body and more propellers for lift, for payloads more than twice that heavy. Another tiny drone is tailored for tiny packages of prescription drugs.
All the aircraft, though, have the same basic design: some propellers to lift vertically, others to propel the aircraft forward, and fixed wings to increase lift and efficiency when in flight. Wing is working on a modular Come for its library, recycling ideas and components that have been proven in its procomplaints, said Adam Woodworth, who was promoted to Wing first executive from chief technology officer in February.
Using these tested sets of flights control systems, propulsion hardware and materials lets Wing quick develop new variations “and tailor them to a huge range of uses from delivery of food, medicine and new goods, to supply chain optimization and emergency response,” Woodworth said.
Wing is functioning on bigger and smaller drones. An effort to more than double cross payload weight to 6 or 7 pounds yielded this bulbous design.
Wing/Screenshot by Stephen Shankland
Drone delivery, although still nascent and limited by regulatory constraints, is gradually catching on. Wing began deliveries in some suburbs of Dallas-Fort Worth earlier this year, an expansion from maximum operations in Australia. Competitor Amazon Prime Air plans to test drone deliveries south of Sacramento, California. In parts of North Carolina, Flytrex drones pronounce food from Just Wings, Chili’s Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s exiguous Italy to homes.
And on Thursday, Zipline announced a plan for drone delivery of medical products to areas near Tacoma, Washington. It already has major operations in Rwanda and Ghana.
