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Google's Wing Drones Approved To Make Public Deliveries In Australia (theverge.com)
Alphabet's Wing drone delivery company is launching its first public drone delivery service in Canberra, Australia, after the country's aviation authority granted it regulatory approval. "Around 100 homes in the suburbs of Crace, Palmerston, and Franklin will initially have access to the service, but in the coming months the company plans to expand it to homes in Harrison and Gungahlin," reports The Verge. From the report: The service works by partnering with local businesses including coffee shops and pharmacies to deliver their products "in minutes." Wing's regulatory approval comes with restrictions. Drones will not be allowed to fly over main roads, they will only be allowed to fly between 7am and 8pm on Monday to Friday (or between 8am and 8pm on Sundays), and they will be restricted from flying too close to people. Customers in eligible homes will also be given a safety briefing about interacting with the drones. Wing predicts that drone deliveries could be worth as much as AU$30 to AU$40 million to businesses in the area, and says drones could deliver as many as one in four takeaway orders by 2030.
Australia went from having some of the best (fairest) drone regulations in the world to what will become some of the worst.
Obviously "money talks" because Google is able to fly its big, heavy delivery drones around Canbera, over people's houses, heads and roads -- but as of November of this year, nobody under the age of 16 will be allowed to fly even a 101 gram toy plane in their own back yard without being "supervised" by another person who is 18 years or older and has passed a drone competency exam.
Seriously?
Talk about a great way to kill the hobby that has, for a century or more, gotten kids excited about aviation to the extent that they go on to become pilots, engineers and designers of full-sized aircraft.
I'd love to know what "inducements" Google rolled out to those granting the permissions for its drone tests because it seems they even got an exemption from the requirement to meet minimum noise standards -- otherwise their tests would still be illegal.
It's not what you know that counts -- eh?