Page 32 - STAT October 2023 for Magzter only

DR O NE

FAA authorises Zipline to deliver DDC restarts ISC

beyond operator's line of sight contract for heavy lift
Condor drone

“Zipline is an FAA- June 9, 2021 to provide
certificated Part 135 safety recommendations
operator and will use to the FAA. "We are re-
its Sparrow drone to viewing their final report."
release the payload “Zipline has long
via parachute. Data worked hand-in-hand with
collected from the FAA on our ground-
these operations breaking technology that
will inform the FAA’s enables safe deconfliction rone Delivery Canada (DDC)
ongoing policy with other air traffic partic- Dhas restarted the execution
and rulemaking ipants. Our onboard per- of the contract with the Canadian
activities,” says the ception safety system has government to operate and evaluate
official release. been tested and proven to the heavy-lift Condor remote piloted
he Federal Aviation The FAA is focused enable continuous, real- aircraft, the largest drone currently
TAdministration (FAA) on developing standard rules time airspace monitoring being developed by DDC.
authorised Zipline to deliver to make Beyond Visual Line — one of the capabilities The contract, initially announced
commercial packages around of Sight (BVLOS) operations Congress identified as in March 2023, with a value up to ap-
Salt Lake City and Bentonville, routine, scalable and eco- necessary for commercial proximately $1.2 million is with the
Arkansas, using drones that fly nomically viable. The agency drone deliveries to safely Canadian government’s Innovative
beyond the operator’s visual chartered the BVLOS Aviation scale,” says Liam O'Connor, Solutions Canada (ISC) programme.
line of sight. Rulemaking Committee on COO, Zipline. “The company has prepared a
second Condor to continue with the
execution of the contract. DDC has
Skyports partners with Equinor completed the investigation of the
incident with the first Condor and
has made the required adjustments
for drone deliveries in North Sea and improvements to the second
Condor to improve overall reliability
and flight performance,” said the
DC completed three was completed in wind for our company and the official release.
Dround trip flights with the conditions where the drone delivery industry as a Under the terms of the contract,
Canary drone, with all flights Sparrow RPA would whole," said Steve Ma- DDC will restart the operation,
completed in accordance not have been flown, girias, CEO, Drone Delivery testing, and evaluation of the
with the Canadian aviation highlighting the improved Canada. "The Canary's capabilities of the Condor drone
regulations. The third flight flight dynamics of the impressive performance solution. The contract consists of
Canary over the Sparrow. demonstrates its immense three phases - short-range flights,
"The successful commer- potential to revolutionise long-range endurance flights and
cial flights of the Canary on healthcare supply chains extreme environmental testing.
the Care by Air route marks and make a tangible differ- “We look forward to once again
a significant milestone ence in people's lives." displaying the full capabilities
of the improved Condor and
to potentially offer the Condor
platform to all interested govern-
ment of Canada parties” says Steve
Magirias, CEO, DDC. “The DDC
team has worked diligently to
make the necessary improvements
to the Condor in order to restart
the execution of this important
contract for DDC.”

30 | OCTOBER 2023 www.stattimes.com