National Doughnut Day Celebrated With Drone Delivery

National Donut Day is celebrated on the first Friday in June – and as part of a week long celebration in Denver, the mayor’s donuts were delivered by drone.

LaMar’s Donuts in Denver provided donuts for the mayor and fire and police officials in the city.  LaMar’s hired Texas-based drone services company Drone Dispatch to deliver the donuts to the Denver City and County Building, the police department and the fire department.

In order to perform the deliveries legally, the Drone Dispatch team launched the drones from parking lots within a block of the targets, delivering the package to another team member standing out in front of the building.  By launching from a nearby location, the team was able to fly within government regulations requiring VLOS (visual line of sight) flight and to avoid flight over people.

 

“This is exciting stuff and I think as we get ready for not only drones in the air, and get ready for autonomous vehicles, this is our future this is how we’re going to become a more efficient 21st century nation, society quite frankly,” said Denver mayor Michael Hancock.

The FAA has promised movement on the regulation of flight over people by the end of 2017, working with an industry and stakeholder committee to determine an appropriate framework and examining the potential danger of a drone hitting a person on the ground.  Additionally, the FAA has indicated that it will prioritize BVLOS flight regulation.  Clarification of both areas are necessary before drone delivery can become a viable commercial reality in the US, although many tests of delivery have been performed.

National Donut Day celebrates a Salvation Army mission during WWI, where volunteers known as “the Donut Girls” provided donuts, coffee, letter writing materials and services like clothes mending for soldiers in training camps.