Israeli company Flytrex on Friday announced the milestone, which it believes makes it the largest commercial provider of food drone delivery in the U.S. The firm said 70 percent of the households in its delivery areas—which comprise a handful of towns in North Carolina and Texas—have used the service to deliver items such as sandwiches, hot wings, and even ice cream.

“We are focused on bringing our customers the best experience—and that includes delivery that is convenient for their schedules and preferences,” said Scott Scherer, chief information officer of Jersey Mike’s Franchise Systems.

Zipline leads the commercial drone industry in deliveries with more than 1 million as of August, but the company primarily delivers medical items such as blood samples and vaccines. Similarly, Wing, the drone delivery arm of Google parent Alphabet, has completed 350,000 deliveries as of January, flying a combination of food and convenience items with partners such as DoorDash and Walmart. But it’s unclear what proportion of those are in the U.S., as the company also has a robust presence in Australia.

Flytrex, by contrast, is focused almost exclusively on food delivery in the U.S. The company’s self-flying drones, which are monitored by FAA-certified operators, can carry up to 5.5 pounds of cargo and fly at around 32 mph, covering a range of 5 miles round trip.

Average delivery time is less than five minutes, with the fastest order being completed in just two minutes. A delivery box is fastened to the drone and lowered to the ground with a tether, protecting delicate items such as eggs. Orders are delivered either to the customer’s house or a public pickup spot.

The FAA in 2021 approved Flytrex’s request to fly over people and deliver to customers’ backyards in North Carolina, allowing it to begin flying commercially. Later that year, around the same time Flytrex launched in Texas, the agency expanded the range of the company’s service to 1 nm, then doubled it in 2022. According to the firm, the second expansion allowed it to reach nearly 100,000 customers.

Last year, Flytrex operating partner Causey Aviation Unmanned became just the fifth company—joining Zipline, Wing, Amazon Prime Air, and UPS Flight Forward—to earn FAA Part 135 permissions for drone delivery, which according to the regulator “is the only path for small drones to carry the property of another for compensation beyond visual line of sight.”

The key phrase there is beyond visual line of sight (or BVLOS as it is known in drone industry parlance), which denotes flights beyond the pilot’s field of view. The FAA has yet to finalize regulations on BVLOS operations, which has forced drone delivery providers to obtain waivers to add the permissions.

These exemptions typically expire after a couple of years. However, a Part 135 holder can have BVLOS permissions added to its certificate, as Zipline and Wing have done, rather than requesting temporary relief.

“Flytrex continuously innovates to overcome delivery challenges, ensuring our drones can handle anything from large and heavy family meals to bad weather and oddly shaped packages,” said Yariv Bash, CEO and cofounder of Flytrex.

According to Flytrex, french fries, chicken nuggets, turkey sandwiches, chicken sandwiches, and burrito bowls have been the company’s most popular restaurant orders, while bananas, limes, and ice cream reign supreme at grocery stores. About 36 percent of all grocery orders included some kind of fresh produce.

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The post Drone Firm Flytrex Makes 100K Food Deliveries in North Carolina, Texas appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Last week, the e-commerce giant told CNBC that its Prime Air drone delivery service—which currently serves a smattering of households in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas—has completed just 100 deliveries since launching in late December. Per internal company projections, the firm in January was targeting 10,000 deliveries by the end of 2023.

Now, that projection appears to be in peril. In Lockeford, a town of about 4,000, Prime Air employees said Amazon’s drones serve only two households, each less than a mile from the firm’s local delivery hub.

College Station, which has a population closer to 120,000, may provide more opportunities. But so far, Amazon has failed to capitalize on that market, too.

Amazon did not immediately respond to FLYING‘s request for comment.

There are a few potential drivers for the business’ struggles. Perhaps the largest is the regulatory hurdles it faces. 

Amazon, one of five drone firms to receive FAA Part 135 air carrier certification, would appear to be in a good spot. But those approvals come with major restrictions—in Amazon’s case, they include the ability to fly at night, over people and roads, or beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of a ground observer.

Those restrictions were cemented in November after the FAA rejected several of Amazon’s petitions to ease them. The decision reportedly came as a surprise—according to Prime Air employees, the firm had put up dozens of staffers in hotels in Pendleton, Oregon, home to one of its main test sites, with plans to move them to Lockeford and College Station last summer.

According to the FAA, Amazon did not demonstrate that the MK27-2—its latest drone model, a hexagonal design with six propellers and an onboard sense-and-avoid system—could safely operate near people. The drone’s 80-pound weight also places it outside the purview of the FAA’s Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems rule, muddying the regulatory waters further.

Still, Amazon soldiered on, launching its two services a month later. But soon after, Prime Air was hit with layoffs, and early reports implied less-than-stellar returns in Lockeford and College Station. Now we know exactly how Prime Air has fared: Five months into 2023, it has completed 100 deliveries, or about 1 percent of its goal of 10,000 deliveries this year.

The drone delivery industry was expected to move slowly—and so far it has. But if the rest of the industry is taking its time, Amazon is moving at a snail’s pace.

Currently, Zipline is the industry’s front-runner with 600,000 completed deliveries as of May. Alphabet’s Wing, perhaps the only drone firm that can rival Prime Air’s corporate backing, told FLYING it has made more than 330,000. And DroneUp, the Walmart drone delivery partner that cut jobs last week, said it has made 110,000 deliveries, including 6,000 just last month.

In other words, even if Amazon were on track to hit its 2023 delivery target, it would still fall far short of its key rivals. That’s a sobering outlook given former CEO Jeff Bezos’ initial projections of dominance in 2013.

So how have these firms accomplished what Amazon (so far) could not? The answer lies in regulatory approvals.

Zipline, for example, owns the FAA’s most expansive air carrier approval to date—granted after the agency determined the safety of the firm’s acoustic detect-and-avoid system—allowing it to operate BVLOS and over people. That means its drones can fly where Amazon’s cannot, and the company has leveraged those permissions into robust services in Africa, Asia, and the U.S. 

Zipline also recently secured $330 million in funding to support the launch of P2, its new delivery system that adds a flexible delivery “droid” to the network. The droid will enable more precise deliveries and easier loading of cargo at restaurants and other launch sites.

Regulatory approvals have also given a lift to Wing. Under its Part 135 certificate, the firm can fly BVLOS and over people, which has opened up new U.S. routes and expanded its customer base. That has enabled small services in Virginia and Texas to go with Wing’s complex operations in Australia, where it has partnered with DoorDash and others.

Meanwhile, DroneUp, which flies within a 1.5-mile delivery radius with Walmart under FAA Part 107, is looking to expand its range with new technologies acquired via partnerships. Those include a drone air traffic control system and an autonomous flight system that could help prove to the FAA that its operations are safe for BVLOS.

Why, you may ask, has Amazon been unable to secure these approvals? While the company has gone through several iterations of its drone—including the soon-to-be-released MK30—none have swayed the FAA’s confidence in Prime Air’s safety record.

Several high-profile accidents involving Amazon drones have been reported at the firm’s test facilities, including one in Pendleton that sparked a 20-acre brush fire. Accidents are part of any drone company’s journey, as it turns out. But they appear to be chronic for Prime Air, which has drastically limited its operations.

Another issue appears to be a lack of demand, though it’s unclear what’s causing it. CNBC reported that Prime Air’s Lockeford service has just a handful of signups despite Amazon’s claim that thousands of people “have expressed interest.” The firm says it has been communicating with potential users directly, and some customers even said they were offered gift cards as an incentive.

It could be that the low demand is a symptom of Prime Air’s chosen markets. Lockeford residents, for example, said the drones could startle farm animals in the heavily rural area. Yet Zipline, Wing, and others also fly in rural areas and have experienced no issue garnering new customers. More likely is that FAA flight restrictions have capped Prime Air’s operations—and, by extension, its potential demand in Lockeford and College Station.

“While the FAA broadened Prime Air’s authority to conduct drone deliveries to include sites in California and Texas, the phased process for expanding our service areas is taking longer than we anticipated,” Amazon spokesperson Av Zammit told CNBC.

Whatever the reason for Prime Air’s lack of success, Amazon appears to be committed to getting its drone business off the ground. But it’s going to take much longer than expected.

The post Amazon Says Prime Air Has Completed Just 100 Drone Deliveries appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The drone delivery industry, just like the unmanned aircraft that power it, is currently flying well below the stratosphere.

Among the drone firms that have made their 2022 delivery figures public, none eclipsed more than a few thousand deliveries, mainly owing to the Federal Aviation Administration’s stringent regulations around the young industry.

Those rules, designed to ensure the safety and privacy of the public, have limited commercial drone delivery operations to a handful of companies with FAA approval. But this week that select group got a little larger.

On Monday, Israel-based drone delivery provider Flytrex announced the FAA granted the firm a Standard Part 135 Air Carrier Certification, which according to the agency is “the only path for small drones to carry the property of another for compensation beyond visual line of sight.”

In other words, the certification allows companies to launch and operate long-range commercial drone delivery services without a limit on size or scope. Flytrex joins Alphabet’s Wing, UPS Flight Forward, Amazon Prime Air and Zipline as the only firms with such an approval.

There are still some restrictions on what Standard Part 135 Air Carriers can do—for example, they must receive authorization for each type of operation they want to conduct. But the certification is considered the most lenient regulatory framework available for drone delivery operators today.

The primary alternative, which Flytrex and others have utilized since around 2019, is operating under an FAA exemption or through an initiative like the UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP), a yearslong program aimed at introducing drones to U.S. airspace and evaluating their benefits and drawbacks.

But those methods are temporary. In order for an operator to get off the ground and stay airborne, a Standard Part 135 Air Carrier Certification is the best option.

“We live in an era of instant gratification, where consumers want to get their food or goods faster, more reliably, more economically and more sustainably — and drone delivery has risen to the occasion,” said Yariv Bash, CEO and cofounder of Flytrex. “Flytrex’s continued success delivering to customers throughout North Carolina and Texas has put us ahead of the curve.”

Since 2019, Flytrex has operated its North Carolina services under the IPP and the subsequent BEYOND program, a follow-up initiative aimed at addressing concerns with flights beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of the pilot.

Today, the firm’s network includes five delivery areas—four in North Carolina and one in Granbury, Texas, added in March as part of an expansion—reaching tens of thousands of households by using a tether to lower orders directly into their yards.

But now, Flytrex is aiming much, much higher. Alongside aircraft management partner Causey Aviation Unmanned, the company said it will expand its services nationwide to, by its estimate, 82 million eligible front and back yards.

“Flytrex’s technological expertise, innovation and safety-first approach has helped elevate our service to new heights in drone delivery,” said Jeff Causey, founder and COO of Causey Aviation. “Our close cooperation with the FAA has provided just the right tailwinds to help bring about this drone revolution.”

Among the handful of Standard Part 135 Air Carriers, Flytrex stands out. It’s not a subsidiary of a larger company and doesn’t have the massive coffers of Wing, Flight Forward or Prime Air, nor does it have the volume of Zipline, which has completed over 450,000 commercial deliveries since 2016.

Flytrex did launch one of the world’s first fully autonomous drone delivery systems in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2017. But among its new peers, the Israel-based provider is probably the least established name, further amplifying the significance of the milestone.

Thus far, smaller drone firms have experienced minimal success obtaining Part 135 approvals. Some have gone a different route, opting to certify their drones instead of operations. 

Take Matternet, which in 2022 saw its M2 drone certified as an aircraft and approved for U.S. production by the FAA. Flytrex is currently going through a similar process with its FTX-M600P model.

Drone delivery providers will need to certify both their aircraft and operations in order to avoid regulatory logjams. But Flytrex’s approval this week serves as evidence that smaller operators have a path forward in the growing space — even if it’s an arduous one.

For more coverage on drone delivery, go to FreightWaves.com.

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