Drones Serve as Santa’s Helpers in Dallas-Fort Worth

On Wednesday, Wing, a unit of Google parent Alphabet, launched drone delivery of last-minute presents and takeout meals from a pair of shopping malls in the Texas metropolis. The company believes the service—operated in partnership with food delivery app DoorDash and Brookfield Properties, which owns more than 130 retail locations across 39 states—is the first of its kind.

DoorDash users with an eligible address will see the option to have their order delivered by drone, with a selection of more than 50 merchants based out of Hulen Mall in Fort Worth and Stonebriar Centre in the Dallas suburb of Frisco. Wing did not share which merchants are offering the service but said customers can check the DoorDash app to see what is available in their area.

Orders will be flown straight to their doorstep in as little as 15 minutes, the company said. The service will generally operate between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. CDT, but service hours may vary by location.

Part of the challenge for drone delivery companies is finding a variety of partners to deliver for. Wing in 2022 decided to tap into DoorDash’s network of food, convenience, and retail merchants, launching an app-based drone delivery service in Australia. The partnership in March expanded to Christiansburg, Virginia, making Dallas-Fort Worth its third market. A Wing spokesperson told FLYING additional sites are being planned for 2025.

Since launching initial operations in the U.S., Australia, and Finland five years ago, Wing has completed more than 400,000 deliveries of hot food, household essentials, medical necessities, and more.

The company’s drones complete missions almost entirely on their own—route planning, order loading, flight maneuvers, maintenance checks, and other tasks are all automated. They cruise at 65 mph (56 knots) at an altitude of about 150 feet, autonomously identifying the customer’s delivery address and lowering cargo from the sky using a long tether. Like its other locations, Wing’s operations at Hulen Mall and Stonebriar Centre will be based out of the parking lot.

Dallas-Fort Worth is Wing’s marquee U.S. market. It began serving customers there in 2022, later expanding with partner Walmart to cover an estimated 60,000 households in the area. The massive retailer, which also works with drone delivery provider Zipline, this year expanded its service further to cover 1.8 million households.

The FAA, meanwhile, has lifted key drone delivery restrictions for Wing and Zipline in Dallas-Fort Worth, allowing the companies to manage their own airspace with agency oversight. Typically, commercial drone operators must station visual observers (VOs) along delivery routes to directly monitor flight. But the FAA authorized Wing to replace VOs with onboard detection and communications systems, effectively expanding the drones’ delivery radius.

Now, in partnership with Brookfield, the firm is looking at transforming underutilized spaces at shopping malls—such as rooftops and parking lots—into drone delivery hubs. The goal is to expand to other locations after ironing out the kinks in Dallas-Fort Worth.

“[Dallas-Fort Worth has] been a great market for us, from the local governments we’ve been able to work with to the community members who have made drone delivery part of their regular shopping habits,” a Wing spokesperson told FLYING. “So when Wing and Brookfield Properties began working together, we both agreed it would be a perfect place to launch this partnership.”

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