Big drone on campus: UPS gets OK for deliveries at universities, hospitals
United Parcel Service on Tuesday said it won the U.S. government’s first full approval to operate a drone airline, which gave it a lead in the nascent U.S. drone delivery business over rivals Amazon and Alphabet.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted UPS’ Flight Forward drone subsidiary a Part 135 Standard certification on Friday. The company said the certificate allows it to expand its delivery service in campus settings such as hospitals and universities, but added that residential deliveries are years away.
The certification allows UPS pilots to fly drones beyond their line of sight and opens the door for the delivery company to expand Flight Forward. The fledgling unit is immediately doubling the number of drone flights it does for its flagship customer, Raleigh, North Carolina’s WakeMed Health & Hospitals.
“We’ll easily get to 20-plus flights per day, per drone,” said Scott Price, UPS’ chief strategy and transformation officer.
“It’s a business, it’s not a prototype or a test,” Price said of Flight Forward, which is paid to ferry blood and tissue samples to WakeMed’s central laboratory from points around its main hospital campus.
UPS said its latest certification clears the way for Flight Forward to add other campus delivery projects without seeking government approvals for each one.
“There are hundreds of campuses in the United States,” said Price, who added that UPS is eyeing drone deliveries on hospital, corporate and university campuses as it builds Flight Forward.
“This is a big step forward in safely integrating unmanned aircraft systems into our airspace,” U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said in a statement.
Under the new FAA approval, UPS Flight Forward pilots may now operate multiple drones under one certificate.
Earlier this year, Alphabet’s Wing, the sister unit of search engine Google, was the first company to get U.S. air carrier certification for a single-pilot drone operation. It is testing home deliveries in a rural area around Blacksburg, Virginia.
Amazon, known for its splashy drone delivery tests, also has won experimental certifications to test its drones.
The FAA is writing rules for drone operations, including guidelines for sharing airspace with passenger planes and flying over populated areas.
Residential deliveries, Price said, are “years out.”
Cool new technology, that will be, eventually ,
corrupted, and exploited.
Who needs a 'military' style pepper them with assault
large capacity dirty magazine, folded in the center(near the staple with a crown outtie Apple)
when you have a delivery system that could mow so many more down...
but that's just me, or somebody, else i won't listen too, in my heads
tale of wells fargo ne buy those who might use monetary leverage to pry away furthe rmore freedoms from our society, bled
by blood
delivered from
and produced by
U ps on the Down side of UPS Upside Down Sides Packages delivered via a
P eoples united unaccountable U ltimate (Terrorists Wet Dream) produced by mental washing and dental flossing, but dryer
S ilencing a so what society by developing ser VICES
Jedd Clampetting Hillbilly clubbed like baby seals harping about playing the harpsachording to me
I would like to see my favorite pizza pub start delivering by drone
Is that how you'll score your Mushrooms ?
How did you guess?
I don't know. Possibly it's in my genetic makeup, but since I'm not making this up, I'm guessing, it could also be in my jeans, that are sometimes blue, and I'm not making that up, as I have no artistic ability, and I'm not making that up , neither, cause I altered the state of 23 and me, whence, and thence, there after, nobody lived happily, after ever
n I'm not making this up, cause I'll grow on you like a fungus, but don't get the inclination, I'm a Fungi, cause I'm making this up,
but only, as I go along ,
with everything, nobody suggests.
oh yea, I wood never wear Guess Jeans, as they tend to make me stiff...
in all the wrong places, like it is me, posing for something the cat drone in , or somethin, I'm guessing
but, don't ever guess I don't know what I'm talking about, unless you have 2 more
cause the bottle, Genie n I live out of, is alcohol free (cause who wants to pay, to
play ), certainly not me
well
at least , that's what I am guessing
You can fool some of the people some of the time and all of the people some of the time, but...
And for the last time...STOP BOGARTING!
ok!....ok!....
I'll share....sheesh. Stop yelling at me
That reminds me of an incident here in Maryland at one of the prisons. It was on camera a drone dropping a little sack into a prison yard which an inmate picked up and inside was some marijuana and a cell phone. The inmate is not facing charges but whoever operated the drone is.
Prisons are going to have to put screened "ceilings" over the prison yards.
Now when the pot dispensary can drop it in my backyard....
I'm all for that. I wish they had recreational pot where I am. Would make life so much easier for me!
No kidding. May be more expensive yet no hassle.
I hope they don't fly over my backyard first.
That would be a bit embarrassing !
Pull your pants up already
My Wife "Likes It"....and any married man should know.... ALWAYS "Keep the wife happy !
Pics or it's not true.
Until it can land, then crawl the package up under the porch, forget it.
Maybe I should move this article to Buttheads... what do you think Trout?