The joyous sound of flying hamburgers is about to be heard in the city of Hope Springs, North Carolina. Under an approved proposal, drone company Flytrex and drone services company Causey Aviation Unmanned will soon begin food deliveries.
The program is part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) UAS Integration Pilot Program and comes after Flytrex got some important safety approval. A key part of that approval from the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research (NUAIR) [so many acronyms] was a self-triggered parachute system that would slow the descent of a malfunctioning drone.
Flytrex CEO Yariv Bash said it was an important hurdle to get over.
“Regulation is crucial to the future of widespread drone delivery, both for safe operations and public acceptance, which is why we have been working diligently with the FAA to adhere to the highest standards of safety,” he said in a press release.
Like previous drone delivery tests, this one will be pretty limited. There will be a single delivery point at Ting Park, a recreation hub surrounded by unpopulated areas. The flight will cross a highway via one predetermined delivery route and will remain in sight of pilots under FAA rules.
Still, as Bash said, it’s a big step toward widespread aerial drone delivery.
“This is just the beginning as we expand the possibilities of sky-bound delivery,” he said.
