Aerial entrepreneurs
Matt Sweeny, who founded Flirtey, first had the idea for a delivery drone when he was studying abroad on a scholarship in China. He envisioned a technology that could allow more environmentally friendly, fast and efficient delivery for everyday consumers especially in a city as congested as Shanghai. He began by building delivery drones in his dorm room. Then, as he grew the company, he moved his headquarters to the U.S.
Sweeny said Flirtey’s experiments to date are a step in the direction of making drone delivery of retail goods routine and inevitable. “We are already conducting drone delivery trials in New Zealand, and it’s only a matter of time until your readers see Flirteys making deliveries near them,” he said.
Flirtey, of course, is not alone in this quest. In April, at the CNS Conference in Orlando, Andreas Raptopoulos, the CEO of UAV manufacturer Matternet, announced that his company would be working with Swiss WorldCargo and postal logistics firm Swiss Post on a project to test its latest drone aircraft, the “Matternet One,” as an automated cargo delivery system for small express packages.
Tests have now been conducted using the Matternet One in California and Switzerland. Alain Guerin, head of marketing with Swiss WorldCargo, said the tests in Switzerland involved the drone navigating around mountains and over lakes. The Matternet One is programmed to land only on pre-registered landing pads that Matternet will supply to customers. By using this “home-base” concept, the UAV won’t get lost and land somewhere else because it is programmed to go only from base-to-base.
During these tests, the UAV carried a real payload, but it was small and not commercial. “It carried a box about the size of a dictionary,” Guerin said. The tests have gone well, but he said the manufacturer needs to work on battery life before the drone can enter commercial use. He envisions the drone carrying pharmaceuticals and other valuable items for first- and last-mile delivery, and said the use of these small drones should be integrated into the supply chain delivery system as soon as possible. “That’s why we partnered with Matternet and Swiss Post.”
The Federal Office of Civil Aviation in Switzerland has been extremely supportive of the Matternet system, Guerin said, but he acknowledged that the project still has many more legal hurdles to clear. And, of course, the group working on this project needs approvals from civil aviation authorities all over Europe, not just Switzerland. There will be another series of test flights with the Matternet One drone this year.