It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a flying six propeller with a wingspan of about eight feet.
For the next year, drones operated by British company Skyports are making daily weekly flights across New York City’s East River, between the tip of Manhattan and the pier in Brooklyn. Since early May — slightly behind schedule — drones have been carrying light cargo for New York City’s health care system. Right now, those loads are basically a few pounds of paper; once the health care system is confident that the setup will work, it should include non-hazardous, non-biological packages, such as light medicine.
The drones are part of an experiment run by two New York-New Jersey agencies to discover how new and sometimes. controversial aerial delivery technology can fit into busy urban environments—and the skies above them. The pilot program will also attempt to answer a question that hangs over the entire drone delivery industry: Where does it make sense?
“Will there be enough regular flights (1 to 2 per hour) that the customer health care system gets real value?” Stephan Pezdek, area manager of cargo planning at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is running the pilot, wrote in an email to WIRED. (The Port Authority declined to name the health care system for contractual reasons.) “Will the births get to their destinations quickly and within the financial constraints of the current carriers they use? Will the community appreciate the work and not feel like it’s an inconvenience? All of this will inform our understanding of what the first corridor is like.”
The Port Authority, which is also working with the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCDEC) on this drone project, will also measure how the delivery affects patient care, Pezdek says.
Globally, drone delivery is still in the experimental stage. What projects do exist are more focused on transporting cargo to rural or urban areas, where gaps in road networks and services, as well as empty space, may make the technology more suitable. Skyports has been delivering mail to remote areas of Scotland since 2023, and carrying cargo to offshore wind farms in Germany. US company Zipline says it delivers to and from 5,000 health centers on four continents; its oldest program provides vaccines and blood products in Rwanda. In the US, companies including Alphabet’s Wing and Amazon’s Prime Air are working to expand delivery services throughout the Southconsidering urban areas near HoustonAustin, and Dallas, Texas.
For drones, dense cities present different challenges. First, there is the question of security. New York City’s airspace is crowded, receiving three international airports. In Manhattan alone, there are three publicly owned heliports. In May 2023, nearly 9,000 helicopter flights took place on city land or water, according to collected data and the New York City Council. The start date for this pilot drone program was pushed back in part because another piloted aviation technology, the electronic vehicle for vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), was demonstrating its first flights of its kind from the same heliport.
The said excitement causes additional precautions. The pilot project, as usual, was approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which requires a certified pilot to control each flight. Each flight will take place through a special route away from residential buildings. The project must get a weekly NYPD permit to operate, and delays in getting the first one also caused the city to push back its start date, says Amanda Kwan, a spokeswoman for the Port Authority. The agency also spoke with three community boards before allowing the drones to take off.
