Wing (Alphabet/Google)

Wing, a subsidiary of Alphabet, was the first company to receive an FAA air carrier certificate for drone delivery and has completed over 350,000 commercial deliveries globally. - Operating drone deliveries from 100+ Walmart stores; expanding across five metro areas

For nearly a decade, every commercial drone operator in the United States that wanted to fly beyond a pilot's line of sight had to apply for an individual waiver from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) — a slow, bespoke process that capped the industry at small pilot programs. On August 7, 2025, the FAA published a proposed rule that would replace that waiver system with a standardized regulatory pathway, creating a new Part 108 of federal aviation rules specifically for routine beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations. In January 2026, the FAA reopened the comment period for 14 days (closing February 11, 2026), signaling active refinement of the rule ahead of an expected March 2026 finalization.

Updated 7 days ago

Alphabet subsidiary operating the largest residential drone delivery network in the world through Walmart partnership. - Expanding to 150 Walmart stores reaching 40M+ Americans

Zipline spent eight years delivering blood to remote Rwandan clinics before Americans could order lunch from one of its drones. Now the company has crossed 2 million commercial deliveries—more than every competitor combined—and raised $600 million in January 2026 to bring its autonomous aircraft to Houston and Phoenix. At a $7.6 billion valuation, Zipline's strategy is proving the drone delivery market by starting where regulation permitted, then scaling into U.S. consumer markets.

Updated Jan 31