A Walmart drone delivery hub is coming to Arkansas, researchers create bio-composite drone parts, a UAV for cloud seeding, Alphabet’s Wing isn’t happy with the remote ID rule, the “Uber of Drones” receives funding, and a 19-year-old with a drone led rescuers to four lost fishermen.
Pending approval of the Planning Commissioners, Pea Ridge, Arkansas will be the site of a Walmart drone delivery hub that will see drone delivery trials by Zipline International in partnership with Walmart.
Zipline will operate from a Walmart store and can service a 50-mile radius, which is about the size of the state of Connecticut. And, not only does their launch and release system allow for quick on-demand delivery in under an hour, but it also eliminates carbon emissions, which lines up perfectly with our sustainability goals. The operation will likely begin early next year [2021], and, if successful, we’ll look to expand.
Walmart SVP of Consumer Product, Tom Ward
Zipline says that they will open the facility for tours and STEM opportunities for local students.
Researchers at Malaysia’s Putra University have created drone parts (such as frames) using fiber from discarded pineapple leaves to make a bio-composite material. These have a greater strength-to-weight ratio than other composites and will biodegrade when discarded. The bio-composite components would create income for farmers.
Western China is arid and some would like to see a little more precipitation. Now China’s official news agency Xinhua reports that the Ganlin-1 UAV is equipped to allow cloud seeding for weather modification. The Ganlin-1 (Chinese for “sweet rain”) is a variant of the AVIC Wing Loong II UAV.
At the end of December, 2020, the FAA announced final rules for Unmanned Aircraft (UA), including rules for remote identification. But Alphabet’s Wing team has an issue.
At a basic level, the new rule would enable the real-time tracking of consumer’s drone delivery orders by the general public.
Wing public affairs spokesperson
And we see this:
Unfortunately, the final rule, unlike existing international standards, does not allow the use of equally effective network remote ID, and requires all UAS, no matter the use case, to use “broadcast” RID. This approach creates barriers to compliance and will have unintended negative privacy impacts for businesses and consumers.
Unlike traditional aircraft flying between known airports, commercial drones fly closer to communities and between businesses and homes. While an observer tracking an airplane can’t infer much about the individuals...
