This spring Alphabet subsidiary Wing LLC became the first drone delivery company to receive FAA certification, and the company has successfully launched drone delivery service in Australia and Helsinki. Now, with more drones in the sky, it needs a way to keep them safe. Today, Wing formally introduced its OpenSky app, which could serve as an air-traffic control system for drones.
The app has been approved to manage drone flights in Australia, where it is free. Earlier this year, Wing was approved to launch its first public drone delivery service in that country after Australia’s aviation authority granted it regulatory approval. The app is available in both the Google Play and Apple App stores, as well as on the web. The news of the app was first reported by Bloomberg.
“Whether you’re a hobbyist who loves to fly, or a business that uses unmanned aircraft to survey land or deliver goods, OpenSky makes it easy to find out where and how to fly, tailored to your operation,” the company says on its website.
Wing is also working with the US Federal Aviation Administration to pilot a drone delivery system. But Australia and its neighbor New Zealand have been at the forefront of small, electric, unpiloted aviation. The Australian regulator, CASA, claims that Wing’s drone delivery launch in April was “very likely” a world first. Kitty Hawk, the flying car company backed by Google founder Larry Page, received certification to launch a commercial service in New Zealand last year.
Wing isn’t the only company working on an air traffic control platform for drones. NASA has spent four years working on its system, and starting next year, all DJI drones will detect and warn of nearby airplanes and helicopters. Even Ford has proposed a drone tracking system. But given Wing’s relationship with Alphabet and all of the location data Google owns, it could have an advantage. It’s unclear when OpenSky might make its way to the US, but Wing is preparing to launch a commercial drone delivery trial in Southwest Virginia sometime this year, so it could arrive sooner rather than later.
