Monday, July 25, 2016

Aussie Firm Flirtey Delivers with UAV at US FAA Test Sites

Matthew Sweeny, CEO Flirtey
The First Urban Drone Delivery Just Happened In Nevada | Popular Science
Hawthorne, Nevada isn’t known for much. The town of roughly 3,000 sits on the western edge of the state, near an Army ammunition depot, and not much else. Announced today, Hawthorne is now the site of what might be a historic precedent: the first urban delivery in the United States by a fully autonomous drone.

The drone was flown by drone delivery company Flirtey, which got it's start in 2013 in Australia, delivering textbooks to universities, before it moved to Nevada. Its six-engine multicopter flew along a predetermined path. When it reached the target house, it lowered a package containing bottled water, emergency food, and a first aid kit. The house was uninhabited, as the flight was a demonstration of what a rescue drone might be able to carry to people in need. Flirtey already conducted a rural delivery test, so it makes sense that urban was next, even if that “urban” is defined as a fairly small town. According to Flirtey CEO Matthew Sweeney, 86% of packages are 5.5 pounds or less, and that the drone is designed to carry payloads that size up to 10 miles away.

Flirtey completes first FAA-approved drone home delivery | 2016-07-25 | Microwave Journal
“This delivery required special flight planning, risk analysis, and detailed flight procedures ensuring residential safety and privacy were equally integrated,” said Chris Walach, Director of Operations for NIAS.

At a Reno, Nevada 7-Eleven® store, two deliveries were successfully completed. 7-Eleven merchandise – including hot and cold food items – were loaded into a unique Flirtey drone delivery container and flown autonomously using precision GPS to a local customer’s house. Once at the family’s backyard, the Flirtey drone hovered in place and gently lowered each package. The purchases were delivered to the family in the span of a few minutes. In the future, both companies expect drone packages to include “everyday essentials” such as batteries and sunscreen.

Flirtey Drone's First Slurpee Delivery is No Big Deal - Nanalyze
The big news came this week when 7-11 and Flirtey conducted a single delivery which consisted of 2 one-mile flights between 7-11 and someone’s house leading the press to issue headlines such as the following:
They conducted a single delivery as a publicity stunt on their [7-Eleven] 89th birthday. It hardly spells the beginning of 7-11 delivering now by drones. In another instance this year, a Flirtey drone flew three 3-minute flights and delivered 10 pounds of medicine from an airbase to a clinic, showing “the potential for using drones to deliver goods to remote areas“. That’s a great proof of concept and all but Matternet has actually been doing this since 2011. Last month Flirtey conducted the “first domestic ship-to-shore drone delivery” which involved delivering a drone to a ship with some supplies and having the ship send the drone back with a return delivery.
In another instance this year, Flirtey said that it completed the first “federally sanctioned” delivery to a U.S. urban area without the need for a human to steer the drone. The half-a-mile drone flight resulted in a delivery being left at an uninhabited house leaving one to think that this was one of the stipulations required by the FAA to run the test, in which case we’d be much more impressed seeing a delivery or two to a proper inhabited urban area. Here’s what ZDNet stated about the event:
In an uninhabited residential setting in Hawthorne, Nevada, the company successfully delivered a package that included bottled water, emergency food and a first aid kit by drone. The test was performed at one of six FAA-designated Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Sites, and the Flirtey operation is investigating rescue and crisis response in disaster-prone areas.
Calling a drone flight “FAA approved” when you’re conducting it in an “FAA-designated drone testing area” seems a bit misleading. Nonetheless, Flirtey has managed to raise $3.9 million from investors that include Qualcomm and is posturing itself as a viable competitor to much biggest companies that are exploring drone delivery like Google and Amazon.


Flirtey: The rise of the drones... - Australia Unlimited
Flirtey is launching an unmanned aerial delivery service to smartphones. Flirtey develops autonomous robots capable of delivering packages to a GPS location from a warehouse, restaurant, or other launch location. Flirtey's technology enables secure and safe operations at scale. Flirtey hopes to turn Australia into a worldwide industry leader for the use of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in e-commerce deliveries.

ICTAS: Unmanned aircraft used in historic flights to reside at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum 
Historic Flirtey Drone Donated to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum | Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate
(April 28, 2016)— The Flirtey drone used to make the first FAA-approved drone delivery in the United States has been accepted into the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, which displays the Space Shuttle Discovery, the SR-71 Blackbird and the first aircraft operated by FedEx.


Flirtey making history with the first US drone delivery - YouTube

The six-rotor drone delivered medication to a rural medical clinic in Wise Virginia on July 17, 2015 after the medication was flown to a regional airport by a remotely operated NASA winged aircraft. The carbon fiber and aluminum drone has a delivery system that works by lowering the package in a controlled manner while the drone hovers in place. Built-in safety features include an automatic return-to-safe-location in case of low battery, low GPS signal or communication loss. Through participation from NASA’s Langley Research Center, Virginia Tech and the Mid Atlantic Aviation Partnership, Flirtey’s delivery showcased the massive commercial potential of drone delivery in the United States and around the world.

Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeny said, “Flirtey’s delivery was the ‘Kitty Hawk moment’ for the drone industry and it is fitting that our delivery drone will now be part of the same institution that displays the Wright Flyer”. “With Flirtey’s leadership, the enormous potential and inevitability of delivery by drone is clear,” said Sweeny “Flirtey is proud to be a part of the Smithsonian’s unequaled aviation collection.”
Flirtey's drone to be exhibited in Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum - Startup Daily
The drone was delivered to the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which is located near Washington Dulles International Airport. The center displays the some of the most important artifacts and advancements in aviation history. The drone will be put on exhibit after it has been prepared for long-term display by museum collections specialists. “This is a tremendous milestone for our team. When drones are as common place as mail trucks, delivering anything you desire, people will look back at this as where it all began and be inspired to realize the next great chapters in our dreams of flight,” said Flirtey co-founder Tom Bass. Flirtey is continuing its collaboration with the Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science, the Mid Atlantic Aviation Partnership, the NASA Langley Research Center, the Appalachian College of Pharmacy, Rx Partnership, the Health Wagon, Remote Area Medical, and the Business and Economic Development Office of Wise County, Virginia, and is planning to expand its drone delivery service in the United States.

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