From Store to Sky: Zipline and Walmart Grow Drone Delivery Network in Texas

Zipline, Walmart expand drone deliveries in DFW area

By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill

An increasing number of people are getting delivery of everyday items delivered to their doorsteps via drone, in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas and in other locations across the U.S.

Earlier this month Zipline, the operator of the world’s largest autonomous drone delivery system, began conducting drone deliveries from a Walmart Supercenter in McKinney, Texas, about 40 miles north of Dallas. The kick-off event marks the 15th city in the greater DFW area in which Zipline and Walmart are partnering to provide drone delivery. Other locations include Dallas, Waxahachie, Burleson and Mesquite.

In addition, a company spokeswoman said Zipline planned to begin drone delivery service from a Walmart in Red Oak, a city about 20 miles south of Dallas, the week of November 10.

The Zipline delivery system employs two vehicles; the primary aircraft, known as the Zip, and the smaller Droid, which fits in the belly of the Zip and which carries the payload of items to be delivered to the customer. The Zip, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle is able to fly autonomously to service customers within a 10-mile radius of its home base store.

To order a delivery, a customer opens up the Zipline app, clicks on the Walmart section, and loads up their cart with the items that they’d like to purchase. Once they complete their purchase, those items will be loaded into a delivery Zip to be delivered to a predesignated spot at the customer’s home, such as the backyard or on the front porch.

Once it reaches its destination, the Zip will then hover about 300 feet above the delivery location and lower the Droid to the drop zone on a tether. Once the delivery is complete, the smaller delivery vehicle is hoisted back up to the primary aircraft, which then returns to the dock to prepare for its next delivery.

The system can carry a payload of 8 pounds, and the Zips, which are equipped with automatic airspace avoidance technology can travel at 70 mph.

Zipline’s introduction of drone delivery service into McKinney and Red Oak is part of Walmart’s ambitious plans to bring UAS delivery service to communities across the country. In June, the retail giant announced that in partnership with drone delivery company Wing, it would expand the service to 100 additional Walmart Supercenters across key U.S. metro areas. Over the next several months, in what Walmart calls the world’s largest expansion of drone delivery service, customers in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa are expected to be able to receive their Walmart orders by drone.

In the meantime, Walmart said it would continue to add more delivery hubs at its Supercenters in the DFW area.

Other drone delivery companies also are expanding their services into new markets. Amazon Prime Air, whose drone delivery service has seen its share of ups and downs, recently said it was launching UAS deliveries from its fulfillment centers in Waco Texas and Pontiac, Michigan. According to published reports, the company can deliver packages weighing no more than five pounds within a seven- to eight-mile radius of the facility.

In September Amazon Prime Air said it was halting drone delivery service in College Station, Texas, one of two original pilot program locations for the service. The decision to pull out came after College State Mayor John Nichols wrote a letter to the FAA, citing neighbors’ complaints of noise at the Amazon drone-launching facility and asking the agency to put the breaks on the company’s plans to expand its operations in the city.

The market for drone delivery services is expected to see explosive growth over the next decade. According to researchfrom Fact.MR, the global drone delivery services market is expected to grow by more than 10 times, from $1.5 billion in 2025 to $18.3 billion by 2035. The market is forecasted to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28.4% in that time frame.

A recent report cites as reasons for this phenomenal growth, “increasing demand for automated delivery solutions, growing adoption of unmanned aerial systems across e-commerce and healthcare sectors, and rising preference for last-mile delivery optimization in logistics applications.”

Read more:

• Chipotle Partners with Zipline to Launch Drone Delivery in Dallas
• Walmart and Zipline Launch Drone Delivery in Dallas Suburb (Check Out the Video!)
• Walmart and Wing Announce Major Drone Delivery Expansion
• Zipline Hits 100 Million Miles: A New Milestone in Autonomous Drone Delivery

Jim Magill is a Houston-based writer with almost a quarter-century of experience covering technical and economic developments in the oil and gas industry. After retiring in December 2019 as a senior editor with S&P Global Platts, Jim began writing about emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, robots and drones, and the ways in which they’re contributing to our society. In addition to DroneLife, Jim is a contributor to Forbes.com and his work has appeared in the Houston Chronicle, U.S. News & World Report, and Unmanned Systems, a publication of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International.