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Walmart teams with DroneUp for aerial deliveries in Arkansas

While Kitty Hawk, North Carolina will be forever famous as the place where the Wright Brothers flew the first airplane, Farmington, Arkansas may gain future fame as the place where drones took to the sky to deliver a range of products for Walmart, Inc.

Teaming with startup DroneUp, the retail giant will soon begin delivering products within a 1.5-mile base outside of its store in Farmington with the program set to expand to Rogers and Bentonville. Walmart was founded in Arkansas and still has its headquarters there.

The goal for Walmart and other carriers is to expand drone services over longer distances. The three DroneUp airport hubs realize the first step in meeting this goal.

“When we invested in DroneUp earlier this year, we envisioned a drone delivery operation that could be quickly executed and replicated across multiple stores,” said Tom Ward, senior vice president of last mile at Walmart U.S.

“Opening our first hub within months of our initial concept showcases DroneUp’s ability to safely execute drone delivery operations with speed. We’re already hearing great customer feedback at our first site in Farmington, Arkansas, and look forward to opening additional locations,” Ward continued.

Other companies such as Google parent company Alphabet Inc., Amazon. com Inc. and UPS are also beginning pilot drone programs. Alphabet’s subsidiary Wing has partnered with Walgreens in Dallas and Amazon is developing something called Prime Air. These projects, however, are limited because the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has yet to finish developing regulations for long-range deliveries.

The first ever drone delivery in Farmington was a four-can pack of tuna on Nov. 15. Each delivery costs $10 but DroneUp is looking to lower that cost.

According to its website, DroneUp is making it easy for customers to get drone delivery. Customers simply enter their address to verify eligibility and then shop products online at droneupdelivery.com. The order is secured to a drone and delivered to a hub where it is remotely sent by a DroneUp flight engineer.