BENTONVILLE, Ark. – Walmart is marking a milestone in its drone delivery program that began as a pilot in Fayetteville, N.C., in 2020. The company said it recently made its one millionth delivery via drone. About 40% of them occurred in the first quarter of its fiscal 2027, which began February 1. Some 200,000 of the deliveries have been in Texas.
The average delivery time is 23 minutes, Walmart said, and the quickest required 4 minutes and 44 seconds.
“Since launch we’ve seen customers evolve from trying it to experience the novelty of the service for items like bananas or snack food, to now turning to it frequently to get items delivered really fast, when they need them most,” the company said in a blog post highlighting the milestone.
The retailer works with drone delivery providers including Wing and Zipline for drone deliveries from 66 stores serving five metro markets in four states. Wing has said its drones can carry merchandise weighing up to five pounds, fly at speeds to 60 miles per hour, and travel up to 12 miles per roundtrip.
Wing has spent a decade designing the vehicles, which are made of lightweight, durable foam weighing about 11 pounds and are capable of flying autonomously in all kinds of weather. Wing’s drones are powered by electric batteries and utilize a dual-propulsion system that includes vertical lift motors for takeoff and landing.
Delivery routes are programmed with the aid of artificial intelligence. Human pilots monitor each flight from an operations hub.
The Federal Aviation Administration last summer proposed a rule allowing companies to fly drones outside of an operator’s line of sight, a move that would allow flights over longer distances.
