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Flytrex

Food & Retail Drone Delivery Specialist Flytrex Gets FAA Approval For One Mile Deliveries

Flytrex, a startup specializing in on-demand delivery of food and retail items, announced this morning it had received approval from the FAA to expand its delivery radius to one nautical mile across all its operating stations in North Carolina.

According to a release sent to The Spoon, the company, which received approval in May of this year to operate over people, has completed “thousands” of deliveries to customers. With over 10 thousand potential customers within the company’s new expanded delivery radius, expect that pace to pick up further.

Customers interested in a drone-delivered meal can order via the Flytrex app with participating stores and restaurants. The app sends updates to the customer while the package is en route and, once the drone arrives, the package is lowered by wire into the customer’s backyards. Flytrex drones, operated in partnership with drone delivery operator Causey Aviation Unmanned, have a payload of over 6 pounds.

The news comes on the heels of a $40 million Series C funding round announced last month. The funding, which the company is using to develop its hardware further and expand its business development practices, should solidify the company as an early leader in the drone delivery market. The company, which launched its first drone delivery system in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 2017, has established partnerships with the likes of Walmart and Chili’s. Flytrex is one of eight companies participating in the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) BEYOND Initiative, a program focused on finding solutions for challenges of unmanned air service integration.

Flytrex does have some competition, including the high-profile efforts of Amazon through its Prime Air group. However, nearly nine years after Jeff Bezos first wowed the world when he teased the idea of Amazon drone delivery, the mega e-tailer’s efforts have shown outward signs of potential struggle as of late. On the other hand, Manna, another backyard drone delivery specialist, continues to plug away in Europe, reaching a delivery milestone of 50 to 100 deliveries per day in the spring of 2021.

“Drone delivery is reaching new heights faster than anyone could have expected,” Yariv Bash, co-founder, and CEO of Flytrex, said. “This approval from the FAA will allow us to cater to the growing demand for fast and efficient on-demand delivery in suburban America. We look forward to continuing on this exciting flight path, bringing five-minute delivery to the millions of backyards across the USA.”

Flytrex Gets Thumbs Up From the FAA for Backyard Drone Delivery in North Carolina

Flytrex, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based drone delivery startup, announced today that it will be expanding its service in Fayetteville, North Carolina, after receiving approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to a press release sent to The Spoon, the FAA granted a waiver to Flytrex that allows the company to operate its drones above people, clearing the way for delivery of food, drinks and other goods directly to consumers’ backyards.

Drone operations will be conducted in cooperation with Causey Aviation Unmanned, and those interested in getting a latte delivered by drone will need to download the Flytrex app to place their order with participating restaurants and stores. Once fulfilled, the order is flown to the customer’s backyard where the drone hovers in the air and lowers the payload down to the ground by wire. Flytrex drones can carry a 6.5 pound payload up to 40 mph with a range of six miles.

Walmart has been part of Flytrex’s Fayetteville program since September of last year, offering drone delivery of select groceries and household goods. With today’s announcement, the number of homes in Fayetteville eligible for on-demand drone delivery from Walmart will expand, though more specifics were not provided.

It’s said that change happens slowly and then all at once. We appear to be on the cusp of the “all at once” part of that timeline as drone delivery is fast becoming a reality for consumers around the world. Over in Galway, Ireland, Manna has been doing 50 – 100 drone deliveries a day. Here in the U.S., Kroger announced a drone delivery pilot with Drone Express in Centerville, Ohio this Spring.

One of the potentially big advantages of drone delivery is speed. By flying above roads and traffic, drones can deliver hot coffee and restaurant meals in a manner of minutes. The food doesn’t spend as much time traveling and arrives hot. This means that drone companies can operate more deliveries per hour than a traditional third-party delivery driver (and that a full-sized car isn’t hauling a single cup of coffee). Manna says that a single drone operator can do 20 deliveries per hour.

For its part, Walmart seems to be getting serious about drones. The Arkansas Democrat Gazette posted a picture today of a drone launchpad being built by Walmart in Pea Ridge, Arkansas, just 11 miles from the company’s headquarters in Bentonville.

We had an entire panel devoted to the present and future of drone delivery with Manna CEO, Bobby Healy, and Valqari CEO, Ryan Walsh at our ArticulATE food robotics and automation conference last week. You can watch the full video of it and all of the day’s sessions by becoming a Spoon Plus member.

Flytrex Raised $8M to Expand U.S. Drone Delivery Operations

Drone delivery startup Flytrex announced last week that it has raised $8 million in new funding. According to Bloomberg, most of the round came from previous backers including Benhamou Global Ventures and European venture fund Btov, and is part of a bigger round that will close later this year. This brings the total amount of funding raised by Flytrex to $20.3 million.

Tel Aviv-based Flytrex has been making commercial drone deliveries since 2018. As of 2020, Flytrex had completed more than a thousand deliveries in Reykjavik, Iceland. The company has also been operating on a limited basis here in the U.S. Last year it was making deliveries at King’s Walk golf course in North Dakota, and announced a pilot program with Walmart to make deliveries in Fayetville, North Carolina.

As Bloomberg pointed out, the only FAA-approved drone delivery operators in the U.S. are Alphabet’s Wing, Amazon and UPS. But the FAA also issued new rules around drone safety and nighttime flying rules at the end of 2020, which should allow for more approvals for startups such as Flytrex and Deuce Drone, which is doing grocery deliveries in Alabama.

Though there are sill a number of regulatory and safety hurdles to be worked out, we’re starting to see drone delivery literally take off in different parts of the world. In Ireland, Manna is doing 50 – 100 drone deliveries a day. In Brazil, iFood is aloft, and in Israel, Dragontail Systems has partnered with Pizza Hut for pizza drone delivery.

As rules are clarified, and assuming these pilot programs prove themselves economical, we should start to see an acceleration of similar announcements around done delivery funding and expansion here in the U.S.

If you are interested in the future of drone delivery, be sure to attend our ArticulaATE food automation and robotics virtual conference on May 18!

Walmart’s Drone Delivery Pilot with Flytrex Takes off in North Carolina

Walmart announced today that it has partnered with Flytrex to start a drone delivery pilot program in Fayetville, North Carolina. The drones will deliver select groceries and household essential items.

Neither company provided more details about specific service areas or hours, but we do know that Flytrex has already been operating drone deliveries in Iceland since 2018 and more recently in North Dakota here in the U.S.

As we’ve written before about Flytrex:

The Flytrex drone is a hex-copter capable of carrying a 6.5 pound payload (enough to feed a family of four, said Bash), up to 40 m.p.h., with a range of six miles. The system is really built for suburban sprawl, and uses a tether to lower deliveries down to people when it arrives at its destination. Bash said that while a human driver can typically only make two to three deliveries an hour, a Flytrex drone operator can make up to 15.

Fytrex’s other pitch is that is has numerous safety-related redundancies that allow its drones to withstand catastrophic events like motor loss, battery loss and communication failure.

Walmart’s announcement comes just weeks after its retail rival, Amazon, won approval from the FAA for its own drone delivery program. Elsewhere in the U.S., Google Wing has been making drone deliveries in Virginia, Deuce Drone will start making grocery deliveries in Mobile, AL, and Uber had plans to do drone delivery in San Diego this summer.

But given the complexities of drone delivery (flight paths, added layers of safety in the event of a drone failure, etc.), we aren’t anywhere close to hearing a steady drone of drones overhead anytime soon. Walmart even conceded as much in its announcement today, writing, “We know that it will be some time before we see millions of packages delivered via drone. That still feels like a bit of science fiction, but we’re at a point where we’re learning more and more about the technology that is available and how we can use it to make our customers’ lives easier.”

It’s only a bit like science fiction now though.

Flytrex Trialing Delivery by Drone in North Dakota and North Carolina

Restaurant meal delivery by drone always seems to be just over the horizon, as it were. While there are a number of tests from different companies going on around the world, delivery by drone just doesn’t quite feel like a real thing yet.

You wouldn’t get that from speaking with Yariv Bash, Co-Founder and CEO of Flytrex, a Tel Aviv-based drone startup. Bash is very optimistic about the future of drone delivery, obviously, and says his company will be powering drone deliveries for thousands of customers by early next year.

Flytrex has already done thousands of drone deliveries in Reykjavik, Iceland since 2018. Here in the U.S., at the King’s Walk golf course in North Dakota, it offers drone service now as well (“No more waiting around for the beverage cart.”), according to Flytrex’s website. The company is also currently prepping another pilot in North Carolina.

The Flytrex drone is a hex-copter capable of carrying a 6.5 pound payload (enough to feed a family of four, said Bash), up to 40 m.p.h., with a range of six miles. The system is really built for suburban sprawl, and uses a tether to lower deliveries down to people when it arrives at its destination. Bash said that while a human driver can typically only make two to three deliveries an hour, a Flytrex drone operator can make up to 15.

“But the interesting part is on the inside,” said Bash about his drones. “There are multiple levels of redundancy. It can sustain motor loss, battery loss, communication failure. If everything fails, there is an independent parachute.”

Safety measures like those are top of mind in any conversation about drone delivery. It’s one thing if a rover robotstops dead on the sidewalk, quite another if a drone stops working above your house (or head).

And while the COVID pandemic may be accelerating the adoption of other contactless forms of delivery (like robots), Bash said that all stakeholders are taking the safety of drones very seriously. “The FAA is not willing to lower the bar on safety,” Bash said “but it is willing to work a lot harder with you.”

While safety is a priority, Bash also said that other regulators are excited about drone delivery. “On the local governmental levels, so far, everyone is really happy and wants us to start operating in their areas,” he said.

Flytrex is just one of many companies in various states of drone delivery around the world. There’s Manna in Ireland, Zomato in India, and Fling in Thailand. Domestically, Google Wing has been making deliveries in Virginia, Deuce Drone will be making grocery deliveries in Mobile, AL, Uber is supposed to be testing drone delivery this summer in San Diego.

Bash told me that his company will expand service by partnering in new markets with smaller, existing aviation companies that currently run their own manned flight companies. Those companies are already used to complex nature of flight and the regulatory issues surrounding them.

Though he didn’t spell out many details, Flytrex will also be partnering with unnamed companies to build out a marketplace of restaurants that will offer a drone delivery option. Those restaurants will charge an unspecified delivery fee that will be split between Flytrex and its aviation partner.

So far Flytrex has raised $11.5 million in funding. “We expect to be servicing hundreds of clients in a few months and then thousands early next year,” Bash said.

If Bash and Co. can make it work, drones will finally be crossing that far off horizon.