Breaking Record: Google’s Drone Delivery Services  

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A considerable increase in Wing drone delivery service during the global coronavirus pandemic. Wing is a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet.

As the coronavirus pandemic continues, the use of Wing’s service has risen 500% between February and April, including in Australia, where it was first launched in 2019. “We saw the number of deliveries double from February to March, then again from March to April, including thousands of deliveries in Australia in that timeframe,” Maria Catanzariti, Wing Communications Lead told Business Insider Australia.

Wing has delivery sites in Canberra, Logan, Queensland, Virginia in the US and Helsinki in Finland. And its received a roughly 350% increase month on month in sign-ups to its service around the world.

Its customers are retailers, and some of the most popular items delivered by the drone include coffee, fresh bread, and household groceries, sushi, etc.

The drones have a wingspan of 1 metre, weigh roughly 4.8kg and can carry packages of around 1.5kg. They can reach speeds of up to 113km/h and their fastest delivery time to date has been 2mins and 47 seconds, according to au.finance.yahoo.com.

Deliveries are made via the Wing app. Once you place an order, a drone picks up the package at Wing’s delivery facility then – at its flight altitude – it heads to its destination. Once it gets to the destination, the drone slows down, hovers and drops to 7 meters above the ground. It then lowers the package to the ground by a tether and releases it in the selected delivery area. The drone doesn’t land and there is no need for you to unclip it or help with the delivery. When it’s done, it just goes back to its cruise height and returns to Wing’s site.