Drones

Flirtey's Eagle could push delivery-by-drone into wide use

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Along with retail goods, the Flirtey Eagle could also be used to deliver emergency medical supplies
Flirtey
Flirtey founder and CEO Matthew Sweeny with the Eagle drone
Flirtey
Along with retail goods, the Flirtey Eagle could also be used to deliver emergency medical supplies
Flirtey

Although many companies have jumped on the delivery-drone bandwagon, Flirtey was one of the first, and remains one of the most likely to actually develop a large-scale residential drone delivery service. To that end, the firm has now unveiled its new Flirtey Eagle quadcopter.

For starters, the Eagle is claimed to be capable of flying in 95 percent of wind and weather conditions, sporting a cargo compartment that reportedly fits 75 percent of packages that are typically delivered to customers' homes. The company's goal is for the aircraft to make deliveries anywhere within a city, in less than 10 minutes.

When not in use, the drone sits in an enclosed Portal take-off and landing station – this is actually a small trailer, that occupies a single parking space at a client's business. Once someone from that business has loaded the Eagle up with a package, the drone rises out of the Portal on an elevating platform, and then takes to the air.

Guided by GPS, it proceeds to autonomously make its way to the customer's home. And although the drone effectively does fly itself, a centrally-located human operator remotely oversees its flight – along with those of up to nine other Eagles.

The Flirtey Eagle makes a delivery
Flirtey

Once arriving at its destination, the drone doesn't attempt a landing, but instead lowers its payload down on a tether. The recipient (who has already been alerted of its arrival) then removes the package, after which the Eagle retracts its tether and flies back to the Portal. It then recharges its battery, while awaiting its next delivery.

According to Flirtey, the US Federal Aviation Administration has already granted approval for the company to conduct multi-drone delivery operations (where the one person monitors 10 Eagles at once), to conduct drone delivery flights beyond visual line of sight, and to conduct delivery flights at night.

You can see the Eagle in flight, in the video below. And should you be interested, previous proposed uses for Flirtey drones have included the delivery of textbooks, pizzas, snacks and defibrillators.

Source: Flirtey

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4 comments
guzmanchinky
Notice how they play music so you can't hear how loud or annoying the buzzing might be for a drone that can carry some weight. And how that tether isn't going to fly around in high winds or get caught on a power line at some point is a mystery to me.
paul314
So it works in those situations where someone is available to receive a package in an open area at ground level. (Or on an accessible roof, I guess). I wonder what percentage of urban addresses that is.
piperTom
Serious? This design presumes the recipient will be present, active, somewhat competent, and definitely NOT any kind of prankster. Back to the drawing board guys.
Douglas Rogers
It needs to auto release when tension is lost or gets too high.