A new type of drone for delivering packages in densely populated cities

Zipline, a company that specializes in delivering packages by drones, demonstrated on Wednesday a new type of drone that allows its services to be provided in cities more dense than those in which it can operate so far, and thus enables it to expand to a larger number of markets in the long term.

She explained that the new "B2" drone is equipped with propellers that allow it to stop in the air.

Once it reaches its destination, it releases another device called "Droid", which is a small drone equipped with propellers, containing the package that is supposed to be delivered, and can land and take off vertically.

The American company hopes that its innovation will enable it to carry out “very silent and precise deliveries, even in strong winds,” as the director of the engineering department, Josef Mardal, told AFP.

As for the current model, "B1", which will continue to be used, it has only one fixed wing, which therefore requires dropping the package from the air by means of a parachute.

The current aircraft requires a landing area equal to two parking spaces, while the B2 requires only the surface of a picnic table.

The new march also has a faster speed, but it can deliver within a radius of 16 kilometers instead of 90.

Zipline plans to perform more than 10,000 test flights this year before launching its new drones commercially.

And the company indicated in a statement that it has so far carried out 500,000 commercial deliveries by “B1” all over the world, from the United States to Japan, passing through Rwanda, as its drones allow the delivery of medicines to hard-to-reach rural areas.

“Demand for deliveries has increased over the past decade,” said company co-founder and CEO Keller Renaudo Clifton, but the company still uses “human-driven one-ton gas trucks to deliver packages that generally weigh less than 2.2 kilograms.”

"It is slow and very harmful to the planet," he added in the statement.

Zipline expected that its deliveries would reach one million by the end of this year, and that their annual number in 2025 would exceed the number of flights of most airlines.