Submits Site Plan For Proposed Air Delivery Hub In The City's Commercial District

Wing, the drone delivery arm of Alphabet, has filed a site plan for a proposed delivery hub in the heart of the commercial district in Christiansburg, VA. The company hopes to start automated drone deliveries in the city this year, perhaps as early as this fall.

The Roanoke Times reports that Wing has not said what it plans to deliver when the project gets underway, or which neighborhoods will be served by the aircraft.

Wing tested the concept by delivering burritos near the Virginia Tech campus for a limited time in 2016. Later, it began a full-fledged drone delivery program in Australia last year. Christiansburg would be the third city selected for such a trial, and the first in the U.S.

Company spokesman Jonathan Bass did not say why the town of 22,000 was selected, but did say that Virginia Tech advised them on the selection process. Christiansburg is some 2,600 miles from the company's headquarters in Silicon Valley. “None of this would have been possible without the continuing partnership with Virginia Tech’s Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership,” Bass wrote in an email.

The company has not released any specifics on the trial program, but Wing has said in the past that it plans to partner with retailers in the cities where they are conducted. Customers would order through an app on their phone or tablet, and the drones would fly from the hub to the retailer, pick up the merchandise, and then fly to the delivery site. The goods are lowered on a tether to the customer in a cardboard box.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) said in a statement following the announcement that he has been working to bring drone deliveries to the state. "I believe unmanned technology has the potential to fundamentally transform our economy and our lives — and southwest Virginia is poised to be at the forefront," Warner said.

(Image from file)

FMI: Source report