Zipline Gets FAA Approval for Drone Delivery of Healthcare Products

The friendly eCommerce delivery skies are getting a bit more crowded after U.S. regulators have approved Zipline International to make drone-based healthcare product deliveries from its headquarters in North Carolina, according to a Bloomberg report Tuesday (June 21).

Zipline made thousands of medical drops in Africa, including distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the report says. The company also works with Walmart and other retailers on drone deliveries.

“We are one step closer to making safe, clean and quiet instant delivery a reality for communities across the U.S.,” Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo said in the report.

Zipline joins Alphabet’s Wing, Amazon’s Prime Air and United Parcel Service’s UPS Flight Forward with its FAA approval. The group has no formal regulations or safety standards for drone-based product drops, the report says, so Zipline was approved Friday (June 17) as an air carrier.

Zipline has made more than 300,000 commercial deliveries. Its aircrafts fly more like traditional planes and are capable of flying longer distances than typical drones. The company is also looking for FAA approval for an automated drone air traffic control system that will ensure its aircrafts avoid other planes and helicopters in flight. The crafts use microphones to detect the sounds of other aircrafts.

Related: Amazon Answers Walmart’s Drone Push With Limited Launch Later This Year

Last week, Amazon said the initial Prime Air drone delivery service is not set to take flight until “later this year” and will be limited to customers in Lockeford, California, a rural community located about 90 miles west of San Francisco in San Joaquin County.

In May, Walmart announced plans to offer drone delivery service to 4 million households in six states. Walmart has teamed up with DroneUp to get its program up and running, and while already serving 34 communities in a half dozen states, it is not only looking to add more locations but is also looking to add additional customers to help support the budding business.

Amazon’s Lockeford pilot program has yet to get off the ground and even when it does will be exponentially smaller than what Walmart is already doing, but the process has literally been a decade in the making, starting with initial vision statements and forecasts for service from founder Jeff Bezos in 2013.