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Google's drone delivery company is partnering with Walgreens to deliver meds, food, and household items to customers in Dallas

Google's drone delivery company is partnering with Walgreens to deliver meds, food, and household items to customers in Dallas

Taylor Rains

Wing and Walgreens partner for drone deliveriesWing

Drone delivery company Wing is bringing air delivery service to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
Wing is partnering with Walgreens to deliver over-the-counter medications, food, and household items to residents.

Google-owned drone delivery company Wing is bringing air delivery to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area using specially made aircraft capable of flying store-to-door in just a matter of minutes.

Wing drone delivery Wing

Source: Wing

Until now, Wing only served small cities in the US, focusing on places like pharmacies, local coffee shops, and local hardware stores. Customers use a mobile app to place orders and then receive their items via drones.

Wing app Wing

Source: Wing

However, the addition of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area proves on-demand air delivery is achievable in major US cities, negating the need for people to get in their car or deal with 5 o'clock traffic to pick up small items. The service is set to launch in the next couple of months.

Wing's drone delivery service Wing

Source: Wing

Dallas-Fort Worth will be the first major metro city in the US to have air drone delivery, and it will be the largest residential delivery operation in the world.

Dallas suburbs Jeremy Woodhouse/Getty Images

Source: Wing

To start, Wing is partnering with Walgreens to bring over-the-counter medications, food, and household items to residents in the Dallas suburbs of Frisco and Little Elm.

Wing and Walgreens partner for drone deliveries Wing

Source: Wing

The company's aircraft will be stationed in a small hangar at an existing Walgreens parking lot. The containers make it easy for stores to deploy drones from the roof, parking lot, or small areas near the building, and the hub can be set up in just a few hours.

Wing drone delivery set up Wing

Source: Wing

Wing's zero-emission electric drones are designed to operate in densely populated metropolitan cities in the US and are overseen by trained drone pilots on the ground.

Wing drone delivery Wing

Source: Wing

To safely operate in metro cities, each drone is equipped with special unmanned traffic management software that plans each delivery route "using local weather data, terrain and airspace maps, and other drone activity." The information is then sent to other aircraft so the drone can safely navigate to the customer.

Wing drone delivery Wing

Source: Wing

The drone is also engineered with both fixed wings and hover propellers that allow it to transition between helicopter and airplane flying, ensuring items are balanced and steady throughout each flight.

Wing drone Wing

Source: Wing

Part of Wing's partnership will see Walgreens employees packaging and loading the items onto the drones instead of Wing's workers, which is a first for the company.

Walgreens employees will package and load deliveries Wing

Source: Wing

Wing is also opening a facility at Frisco Station, which is a new urban-living concept north of Dallas. The space will have the conventional delivery capabilities but will initially focus on "exploring new use cases, community demonstrations, and public tours."

Frisco Station urban-living rendering Frisco Station

Source: Wing, Frisco Station

To prepare for the launch, Wing will conduct test flights and delivery demonstrations around Frisco and Little Elm and get feedback from customers. Over the next couple of months, the company expects to launch a full commercial air delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.

Wing store-to-door drone delivery Wing

Source: Wing

The US is an expansion of Wing's current operation, which is also in Australia and Finland.

Wing drone delivery in Helsinki, Finland Wing

Source: Wing

The company operates the world's only rooftop drone delivery service out of Logan, Australia. The drones take off from the roof of the Grand Plaza shopping center and have made over 2,500 contactless deliveries to people in nearby areas.

Wing delivery operation in Logan, Australia Wing

Source: Wing

According to Wing, last-mile deliveries, which is the movement of goods from the transport hub to its final destination, account for 15-20% of the total cost of retail transactions, either in the form of delivery fees or the time it takes for customers to pick up their items.

Wing drone delivery Australia Wing

Source: Wing

However, Wing's drone delivery service could change that by making last-minute deliveries more sustainable and efficient. According to Wing, if the company's drones are used to deliver 4-6% of household items, Australia's retail sales would increase by $2.2 billion by 2030.

Wing drone delivery Wing

Source: Wing

Wing isn't the only air delivery service in action in the US right now. Israel-based Flytrex has been delivering Starbucks and Walmart items to residents in Fayetteville, North Carolina since 2020.

Flytrex is using drones to deliver Starbucks drinks in North Carolina. Flytrex

Source: Flytrex, Restaurants are dreaming of ways to avoid crippling fees from DoorDash and Grubhub. A Southern California chain believes it has the answer — drone delivery.

Flytrex says its service is more efficient than drivers contracted under Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub. According to the company, contractors deliver about 2.5 deliveries each hour, while Flytrex's drones can deliver 10 in the same amount of time, significantly lowering costs for restaurants.

Fast-food chain El Pollo Loco is partnering with drone operator Flytrex for drone drops in Southern California. Flytrex/El Pollo Loco

Source: Flytrex

Google's drone delivery company is partnering with Walgreens to deliver meds, food, and household items to customers in Dallas

Taylor Rains

Google-owned drone delivery company Wing is bringing air delivery to the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area using specially made aircraft capable of flying store-to-door in just a matter of minutes.

Until now, Wing only served small cities in the US, focusing on places like pharmacies, local coffee shops, and local hardware stores. Customers use a mobile app to place orders and then receive their items via drones.

However, the addition of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area proves on-demand air delivery is achievable in major US cities, negating the need for people to get in their car or deal with 5 o'clock traffic to pick up small items. The service is set to launch in the next couple of months.

Dallas-Fort Worth will be the first major metro city in the US to have air drone delivery, and it will be the largest residential delivery operation in the world.

To start, Wing is partnering with Walgreens to bring over-the-counter medications, food, and household items to residents in the Dallas suburbs of Frisco and Little Elm.

The company's aircraft will be stationed in a small hangar at an existing Walgreens parking lot. The containers make it easy for stores to deploy drones from the roof, parking lot, or small areas near the building, and the hub can be set up in just a few hours.

Wing's zero-emission electric drones are designed to operate in densely populated metropolitan cities in the US and are overseen by trained drone pilots on the ground.

The drone is also engineered with both fixed wings and hover propellers that allow it to transition between helicopter and airplane flying, ensuring items are balanced and steady throughout each flight.

Part of Wing's partnership will see Walgreens employees packaging and loading the items onto the drones instead of Wing's workers, which is a first for the company.

Wing is also opening a facility at Frisco Station, which is a new urban-living concept north of Dallas. The space will have the conventional delivery capabilities but will initially focus on "exploring new use cases, community demonstrations, and public tours."

To prepare for the launch, Wing will conduct test flights and delivery demonstrations around Frisco and Little Elm and get feedback from customers. Over the next couple of months, the company expects to launch a full commercial air delivery service in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.

The US is an expansion of Wing's current operation, which is also in Australia and Finland.

The company operates the world's only rooftop drone delivery service out of Logan, Australia. The drones take off from the roof of the Grand Plaza shopping center and have made over 2,500 contactless deliveries to people in nearby areas.

According to Wing, last-mile deliveries, which is the movement of goods from the transport hub to its final destination, account for 15-20% of the total cost of retail transactions, either in the form of delivery fees or the time it takes for customers to pick up their items.

However, Wing's drone delivery service could change that by making last-minute deliveries more sustainable and efficient. According to Wing, if the company's drones are used to deliver 4-6% of household items, Australia's retail sales would increase by $2.2 billion by 2030.

Wing isn't the only air delivery service in action in the US right now. Israel-based Flytrex has been delivering Starbucks and Walmart items to residents in Fayetteville, North Carolina since 2020.

Flytrex says its service is more efficient than drivers contracted under Uber Eats, DoorDash, and Grubhub. According to the company, contractors deliver about 2.5 deliveries each hour, while Flytrex's drones can deliver 10 in the same amount of time, significantly lowering costs for restaurants.

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