Zipline Emphasizes Safety With Its Delivery Drones in Preparation for U.S. Operations

Later this year, Zipline will bring its fleet of medical delivery drones (read more about them here) to North Carolina to take part in the Federal Aviation Administration's UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP). Zipline will be working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation "to set up a network of medical distribution centers that can use drones to make medical deliveries," which is what Zipline has been doing for several years now in Africa. The FAA is being very careful and methodical with the IPP, because there are a lot of unknowns about how commercial drones can be safely and effectively integrated into a complex, crowded airspace over a crowded, complex country. Zipline is in a unique position to show both North Carolina and the FAA what's possible with drones, since the company is (as far as we know) the only one doing continuous, commercial drone delivery on a national scale. They have more experience than anyone else with things like operational-drone safety, which the FAA is understandably very concerned about, as we reported just last week.