Google‘s parent company Alphabet will test an autonomous delivery service at one of six Federal Aviation Administration-approved unmanned aircraft system test sites in the U.S., Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Alan Levin writes the White House said Tuesday that Alphabet’s Project Wing drone delivery demonstration aims to lay the groundwork for the approval of the use of UAS to safely deliver packages.
Dave Vos, head of Project Wing at the Google X research lab, said his team aims to equip its delivery drones with miniature radio transponders designed to identify the vehicles’ location to other aircraft as well as ground controllers, according to Bloomberg.
The report said Amazon received approval on July 26 to test its Prime Air drone-based delivery system in the U.K.
The White House also unveiled several public and private sector initiatives that seek to facilitate integration of UAS into the National Airspace System such as the National Science Foundation‘s planned $35 million investment into unmanned flight research.