The FAA on Monday released a draft environmental assessment for Wing Aviation’s proposed drone package delivery operations in the Houston area, where the company has already begun service with Walmart at five stores. Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet, is seeking an amendment to its Part 135 operations specifications and other FAA approvals needed to expand beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) package delivery operations using its Hummingbird unmanned aircraft system.
Under the proposal, Wing would establish up to 75 drone “nests” in commercial areas such as shopping centers, large retailers and malls. Each site would house up to 24 aircraft and serve a delivery area of about 6 miles, with a projected maximum of 400 round-trip deliveries per operating day from each site.
The drones would generally fly between 150 and 300 feet AGL at a ground speed of 51 knots, descend to a 23-foot hover at the delivery point and lower packages to the ground by line. The draft EA identifies Wing’s Hummingbird 7000W-B and 8000-A as the primary aircraft, with payload capacities of 2.7 pounds and 5 pounds, respectively. Deliveries would initially take place between the hours of 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., but eventually extend to 10:00 p.m.
Wing and Walmart announced in January that Greater Houston service had launched around stores in Crosby, Katy, Houston and Kemah. The companies have also said they plan to expand drone delivery to more than 270 Walmart locations nationwide in 2027. According to the FAA’s draft EA, Wing’s proposed Houston operation would not result in significant noise impacts and generator emissions associated with the sites would not exceed Clean Air Act de minimis thresholds. Public comments on the draft EA are due by 5 p.m. Central time on June 3.
The nightmare begins! 400 drone delivery flights per site, Walmart claims they will not increase noise nor will power generation for charging drones increase pollution. Are you kidding? Drones flying between 200 and 300 ft are definitely going to cause noise. Flights every 2 minutes, 12 hours are they are definitely going to be noticed, especially about people who live close to a Walmart. Only Houston for now, but this is of course the camel’s nose under the tent edge, they propose operating until 10:00 pm at night once they are fully in the swing of things. They say they will drop by line, but I can predict things falling out of the sky. They say they will hover at 20 ft for delivery, plenty of places they couldn’t do that without getting tangled up in trees. I wish the Federal Administration Agency would do something to resist this! Comments until June means if this gets spread around enough there might be enough unfavorable comments to shut it down?
There’s a Walmart within the tower control airspace centered five mile radius on the Longview and Tyler airports, can you see yourself on final approach and suddenly having a drone in your face half a mile from landing? The recent LaGuardia crash illustrates how pilots on visual approaches with landing clearance in hand are completely unprepared for the sudden need to go around. How long before the air first airplane crash from this? Stupid, Stupid, STUPID!
While the concept and logistics is in itself an amazing bit of technology, I seriously wonder of the actual need. Aside from prescription drug delivery for homebound individuals, it seems more a novelty, or simply enhancing the laziness of our population. With a WM practically everywhere, this is just feeding the “immediate satisfaction “ crowd. I mean, 5# is like a half gallon of milk!