Courtesy of Wing
Wing, a leader in commercial drone delivery as one of the country’s first providers, will operate a drone delivery facility at Frisco Station.
A Fort Worth company is front and center of a first-in-commercial drone delivery service.
Hillwood announced Wednesday that Wing, a leader in commercial drone delivery as one of the country’s first providers, will operate a drone delivery facility at Frisco Station as part of a first-of-its-kind commercial service for a major U.S. metropolitan area.
Wing has been conducting test flights since June at Hillwood’s AllianceTexas Flight Test Center, an uncrewed aerial system (UAS) testing facility in Fort Worth.
The Flight Test Center is one component of the larger AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone — in Hillwood’s words, “a first-of-its-kind ‘do tank,’ leading the nation in smart infrastructure deployment.”
“We’re excited to partner with Wing as a key operator at the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone and Frisco Station as they unveil the first commercial drone delivery facility in North Texas,” Hillwood president Mike Berry said in a statement. “Hillwood has a long-standing history of successful public-private partnerships and deep-rooted experience in innovation, and today those connections push forward the future of how goods and people move.”
The Mobility Innovation Zone offers mobility innovators in surface and air technologies full access to an “unparalleled” testing ecosystem, resources, and partnerships essential to comprehensively scale and commercialize their technologies, according to Hillwood.
Specifically, according to Hillwood, the Flight Test Center allows public and private stakeholders to "accelerate the development and commercialization of urban air mobility and UAS technologies and solutions while informing the future regulatory framework in suburban and urban settings."
Wing is one of several entities currently operating at the Mobility Innovation Zone and the Flight Test Center. Among others housed at AllianceTexas with a presence at the Mobility Innovation Zone are Bell, TuSimple, Gatik, ITS ConGlobal, Phantom Auto, and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
Wing’s drone delivery facility at Frisco Station will initially be dedicated to exploring new UAS use cases, community demonstrations, school field trip educational opportunities, and public tours, with a small number of flights beginning the week of Oct. 25.
Wing has also partnered with Walgreens to launch a first-of-its-kind store-to-door commercial drone delivery service for customers in Frisco and Little Elm.
“Hillwood’s AllianceTexas Flight Test Center provided a unique opportunity for us to conduct research and development efforts this summer, and now Frisco Station is an excellent spot for one of the first drone delivery facilities in a major U.S. metro,” Jonathan Bass, head of marketing and communications for Wing, said in a statement. “We look forward to launching the commercial service here in the coming months, and to the continued partnership with Hillwood and Frisco Station.”
Wing has built a lightweight aircraft and navigation system that can deliver small packages directly to homes in minutes, in addition to an Uncrewed Traffic Management system that helps drones navigate the skies safely. Founded in 2012, Wing has completed more than 100,000 real commercial drone deliveries across three continents.