Wing, the drone delivery arm of Alphabet, will work with Walgreens in a new project for drone deliveries in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
The project is part of a larger new model for drone delivery that will allow Wing to expand into densely populated metropolitan areas in the U.S.
Wing said it will stage delivery drones at retail locations, ready to fly directly to customers. The aircraft will use small containers to serve as tiny hangars that will allow each store to deploy a fleet from a parking lot, on its roof or in small spaces adjacent to the building.
Earlier this month, Wing debuted its first rooftop delivery system in Logan, Australia, earlier this month, which uses a rooftop space instead of a traditional operational footprint as well as offers a co-location with retailers to reach more customers.
Walgreens, which will be the first U.S. retailer to use this approach, will process orders and load packages onto delivery drones while Wing will oversee operation of the delivery service.
Additionally, Wing has teamed up with Hillwood to prepare a separate drone delivery facility in Frisco Station, a development area near Dallas and Frisco, Texas.
Wing said until now, drone delivery has been limited to smaller towns where land use is less crowded and complex. Wing has been conducting test flights at Hillwood’s AllianceTexas Flight Test Center and in coming weeks will launch a commercial service there. Wing claims this will be the first of its kind in a major U.S. metro.
Wing recently said it has flown 100,000 drone deliveries in two years including more than 50,000 deliveries in the past eight months including 10,000 coffee runs, and delivered 1,200 roasted chickens and 1,700 snack packs.
