On Thursday, Wing, the drone delivery arm of Google parent Alphabet, expanded its partnership with DoorDash to the U.S. following a yearlong trial in Australia. In 2022, the companies agreed to integrate their marketplaces, allowing Wing deliveries to be facilitated through the DoorDash platform. It was the first time a drone delivery provider made its service available on a third-party app.

Initially, the service will be based out of a single Wendy’s location in Christiansburg—Wing’s first U.S. commercial market—with plans to explore other U.S. cities later this year. Dallas-Fort Worth, where Wing operates drone delivery with partners such as Walmart, is a potential candidate.

DoorDash views automation as a way to tailor solutions around customer demand and improve platform efficiency. Its partnership with Wing was born out of DoorDash Labs, a robotics and automation arm established in 2021. With the subsidiary still in its infancy, Christiansburg may well be the tip of the iceberg for DoorDash and Wing.

“We are committed to advancing last-mile logistics by building a multi-modal delivery platform that serves all sides of our marketplace,” said Harrison Shih, senior director of DoorDash Labs. “We’re optimistic about the value drone delivery will bring to our platform as we work to offer more efficient, sustainable, and convenient delivery options for consumers.”

Wing, along with medical drone delivery provider Zipline, is one of two titans in the drone delivery industry, having completed more than 350,000 deliveries. The company has flown in Christiansburg since 2019, the same year it launched service in Logan, Australia, a suburb of Brisbane.

In 2022, DoorDash became a partner, agreeing to facilitate Wing deliveries in Logan on its platform. The partners would ultimately expand the service to three locations in Australia’s Queensland region, with more than 60 participating merchants.

“Expanding our partnership with DoorDash and launching in the U.S. is a direct result of the success we’ve seen from our initial collaboration in Australia, where Wing has served tens of thousands of customers via the DoorDash app for over a year now,” said Cosimo Leipold, head of partnerships at Wing.

In Christiansburg, customers with eligible addresses can visit the DoorDash website or app and select the Wendy’s location at 2355 N. Franklin Street. At checkout, they’ll have the option to select drone delivery alongside standard delivery and pickup.

Wendy’s employees will prepare and package orders, and Wing drones will complete deliveries straight to the customer’s doorstep. From order to delivery, the process typically completes within 30 minutes. According to Wing’s early testing data from Australia, its fastest delivery took just over seven minutes.

DoorDash in 2022 explained that the service is intended for small, short-range deliveries, such as Wendy’s takeout orders, which are likely to yield smaller tips. Drones will complement the company’s delivery drivers, who will handle larger orders.

FLYING got a firsthand look at Wing’s service in Dallas-Fort Worth in October. At a Walmart Supercenter in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, the company’s operation occupies a small portion of the store’s parking lot. Other stores can set up Wing hubs on roofs or in adjacent empty spaces.

The system is almost entirely automated, designed to integrate within partners’ existing systems and workflows. All store associates need to do is bring orders from the store to the parking lot.

Wing handles things from there. An automated flight planning and uncrewed traffic management system plans routes, accounting for factors like weather, time of day, and other objects in the airspace. Then a Wing order loader attaches the payload to the drone’s tether.

All on its own, the drone takes off, flies to its destination, lowers the tether, releases the order, and flies back to continue charging. In the air, the aircraft cruises at 65 mph (56 knots) at roughly 200 feet, capable of flying in light wind, moderate rain, or even snow.

All Wing drones flying in the U.S. are overseen by operators at two Remote Operation Centers in Texas and California. Like air traffic controllers, they monitor dots on a screen and step in when an accident could occur. The company’s software also determines which drones might be in need of repairs and grounds them autonomously.

Soon, Wing’s operation will require even fewer people. The company is preparing to roll out its AutoLoader technology, which would eliminate the need for order loaders. Similar to curbside delivery, store associates will simply place orders outside for the drone to pick up on its own.

Wing is also developing a new, larger delivery drone with double the payload of its current model. About 3 in 10 Wing deliveries require two or more drones, and the updated design is intended to streamline those orders. It will complement the company’s existing model rather than replace it.

Recently, the firm obtained an FAA grant for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights without visual observers in Dallas. Visual observers are required by the FAA for BVLOS flights unless the operator has a waiver. Wing instead will use ADS-B transponders and receivers, extending the delivery range it has with human observers along its routes.

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The married couple’s new roles as proprietors of Bedford Landings in Moneta, Virginia, have hardly left them the time to focus on their former professions. Nor would they want to, as they are more than content mingling with their guests and ensuring their stays are memorable. 

“We first bought the property on Smith Mountain Lake Airport [W91] while living in Raleigh, North Carolina,” said Phillips. “We had been dating for about three years, working these professional jobs, and were ready to do something entirely different. I was a mechanical engineer, working in a medical device company, and Karen was a university professor. Both of us were ready to move on to something new.

“We bought this property because it was on an airport, where I wanted to be, and she wanted to return to Virginia, as she grew up about 75 miles west of Smith Mountain Lake in Blacksburg. A friend of mine, who knew I always wanted to live on an airport, called me one morning in January of 2006 indicating that he had some lots for sale on the airport at Smith Mountain Lake. As we were free that weekend, we hopped in the airplane and flew up here.”

DeBord picked up the remaining portion of the story, pointing out that their initial goal with the property wasn’t to operate a B&B.

“We didn’t have any idea that was what we wanted to do with it,” she said. “Somewhere along the line of when we first saw the lot, made an offer, and closed on it, we had the idea that we could retire early and run a fly-in bed-and-breakfast. The idea came from the fact that pilots are always looking for a place to go for the weekend.”

From the beginning, Bedford Landings was designed to be a bed-and-breakfast. The pair’s work didn’t only include attending workshops and reading books on the subject of running an inn. They also were heavily involved throughout the overnight accommodation’s construction process. 

After living in a travel trailer within their hangar for a year and a half, the B&B opened on the 110th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight. In 2023, it celebrated 10 years of operation. 

“It’s been a really good business,” Phillips said. “We estimate between 1,000 to 1,500 people a year come through our doors. So, in 10 years in business, we have had at least 10,000 people stay at Bedford Landings. And we estimate that about 20 to 25 percent of that number have been fly-in guests. That number is increasing each year, but it is hard to advertise to potential fly-in guests because they can come from anywhere.

“What has worked well for us, though, is word-of-mouth [advertising] from those who have stayed here. Also, social media has brought us guests. Actually, we find a lot of our pilot guests that have found us lately on ForeFlight, as well as a couple of different aviation social media sites. These folks are delighted when they can find a place where they can fly, tie down, and be able to see their airplane out the window.”

The husband-and-wife duo added that while the close proximity to the runway—a short taxi from Runway 5’s approach end—is a major plus, it’s not the only reason that pilots choose to spend time at Bedford Landings. They said that Smith Mountain Lake is a major tourist area, so recreational opportunities aplenty are close to the property.

“The big draw is the lake itself,” DeBord says. “The airport is on a peninsula within two coves on Smith Mountain Lake, which is a good-size lake. It’s 22,000 acres, and there are 500 miles of shoreline. It’s a truly beautiful sight when you fly over it in your airplane. It’s just gorgeous because there is both water and mountains.” 

Phillips jumped in to finish the summary of local attractions.

“There is a rental [business] at the airport ($20 per day), so people that fly in here can rent a boat to enjoy the lake, for example,” he said. “As far as other things to do in the area, the National D-Day Memorial is in Bedford, Virginia, which is only 20 miles from here, and that’s worth seeing. The Booker T. Washington National Monument is right on the other side of the lake, [and it] has an educational and enjoyable tour. There is also horseback riding, alpaca farms, and a lot of other things to do around here.”

The lake is a tourist attraction year-round, but summertime remains Bedford Landings’ busy season. 

“Typically, we have somebody here every night,” he said. “It’s a seasonal lake and, of course, the height of our popularity is from Memorial Day to Labor Day. For example, this past July, we had 74 room nights. So, on average, we have at least two rooms occupied every night. We will usually have one or two rooms with guests each night of the week and then all four booked on the weekend.

“It’s a deep lake. It’s 285-feet deep at the dam, and it’s still 120-feet deep at the bridge that’s 8 miles away from the dam. Because of the depth, the water doesn’t cool off very quickly, so you can still swim in October. And there are less tourists here then. I’m one of the seaplane instructors at the airport, and I will similarly tell people the best time to come get their seaplane rating is October. During the summer months, the lake is often too busy for float operations—as there are too many gawkers. Seaplanes are boat magnets.” 

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“I came up and started looking for airpark properties, since I had already been living at an airpark in Texas,” Pomeroy continues. “Prior to Texas, I had lived in Florida and both those states have dozens of airparks. In Virginia? Not so much. I literally was driving all around looking for airparks and getting frustrated. I pulled out an old sectional and saw this airfield and another one that’s right across the street. There are two private airfields right next to each other, somebody at one of them should know where the airparks are.” 

“So I wandered around the roads based on the sectional, found the two airstrips, and then learned that this one was for sale. My first thought was that I would never be able to afford it. But the real estate market and interest rates were both at rock bottom. So it all just fell into place.” 

When Pomeroy purchased the airport in 2013, it was a quiet property that held memories of a more lively past. 

“The airport was initially started in 1970 by a gentleman named Jan Scott. He was a highly accomplished Norwegian pilot that came over and had the good fortune to be one of only 10 pilots out of 100 interviewees to be hired by American Airlines in 1966. He was the one who developed this airport, built the buildings on it, and had quite a glider operation for a while. But he ran into some hardships with the county because he was renting hangars to the glider club. That was seen as a commercial business, and he didn’t have the zoning or permits to do that. Things then kind of calmed down, if you will,” Pomeroy explains. 

Scott was active in the Vintage Sailplane Association, and the airfield had been home to a number of rare classic and antique gliders, as well as a de Havilland Tiger Moth.

“I’ve been slowly trying to reinvigorate things since purchasing the airport. But in the last couple of years things have really started to take off. We, and when I say ‘we,’ Linda [Sanbower-Burke, Pomeroy’s life partner, is included] was instrumental in the airfield’s operations and, especially, coordinating our first fly-in event in September 2021. It simply would not have happened without her. 

“We held the event in conjunction with the town of Lovettsville’s Oktoberfest. Lovettsville was originally a German settlement and has a well-known Oktoberfest event at the end of every September. Unfortunately, the town’s celebration was canceled at the last minute because of residual COVID-19 concerns.

Even without the town’s Oktoberfest taking place, Lovettsville Vintage Aerodrome still can accommodate a healthy crowd of people. 

“We went ahead with our event, since it was entirely outdoors, and it was a huge success. It went far better than I could have ever imagined! Linda invited the Flying Circus out of Bealeton, Virginia, to come up. They brought a Stearman and were selling rides. Justin, who is the organization’s president, was hesitant at first because he wasn’t sure how many people would be here and whether it would be worth his while. By the end of the day, he had sold 26 rides all by himself. He had only gotten out of the airplane one time during that period. At the end of the day, he was turning people away. He asked to come back the next year and bring two guys with him to offer more rides.”

In 2022, the second fly-in event occurred at the aerodrome. There were more patrons and aircraft there than at the first year’s event, which was just one metric that proved the event was a success. 

“At our most recent fly-in the ‘Circus’ brought two Stearmans and a Waco, which was really awesome because the Waco has a bench seat. They could take two people up for rides, so they were taking couples and parents with younger kids. It was so awesome to see the kids getting out of the airplane with huge smiles on their faces. They did 56 rides and we had over a thousand people visit the field that day. We’ve been billing the event as an ‘Oktoberfest, Wings and Wheels.’ It’s a fly-in and cruise-in, with lots of vintage cars and airplanes, live music, and various vendors. The concept has been a really big hit, and our neighbors and entire community have been tremendously supportive!”

All that said, there is still some fallout from the 1970s. The county’s decision surrounding Scott’s operations at the airfield still impacts its usage today. But Pomeroy is optimistic that aligned priorities will be mutually beneficial for both the airport, the town of Lovettsville, and the county at large. 

“We are in the process of pursuing help from county officials to review the zoning to see if we could entertain guests overnight. Not being able to stay overnight has been a deterrent for people who want to fly in and go into town to enjoy the Oktoberfest activities and patronize local businesses.”

Nonetheless, the couple and others are involved in ensuring the airfield’s positive contribution economically and socially to the Lovettsville area’s future. “We want to offer more fly-in events in the future and provide opportunities for area residents, both young and old, to experience, first-hand, the fun, thrill, and joy of vintage and recreational aviation,” says Pomeroy. “We also have high hopes that, with the county’s blessing, we will be able to offer limited opportunities for pilots to fly-in and enjoy northern Virginia’s booming tourist attractions.”

Pomeroy expresses that the 3,000-foot turf airstrip is presently in good condition, although “it’s ideal for taildraggers, but can be a bit of a challenge for high-performance tricycle gear aircraft and those with limited turf experience” (because of the runway surface’s rolling high and low spots). And as its name implies, the airstrip is the perfect place for older aircraft. It’s already host to a special collection of Czech taildraggers, in addition to the litany of unique aircraft that fly in. 

“The name Lovettsville Vintage Aerodrome kind of tells the story,” Pomeroy says. “The focus here is on classic and vintage aircraft, but everybody is welcome to come in and visit. Ideally—and this may be a few years down the road—it would be nice to have a dozen vintage aircraft hangared here. I have a small collection of Zlin aircraft, the old 526-series aircraft. We hope to do a new building where those aircraft can be stored and be visible to the public in a museum-type situation.” 

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