Operations
Approvals: FAA Part 135 air carrier; FAA BVLOS approvals
Autonomy: Autonomous flight supervised from an operations center; hovers about 90 m up and lowers a tethered delivery droid to the doorstep; acoustic detect-and-avoid; docks that charge and load at the store.
Primary use: Home delivery of retail, restaurant and pharmacy orders within about 16 km of a dock.
Operators and customers: Walmart (Dallas-Fort Worth); Chipotle; Cleveland Clinic.
Aircraft record
Aircraft record
| Make | Zipline |
| Class | delivery |
| Type | hybrid VTOL |
| Country | United States |
| Powertrain | battery-electric |
| Payload (kg) | 3.6 |
| Range (km) | 16 |
| Autonomy | Autonomous flight supervised from an operations center; hovers about 90 m up and lowers a tethered delivery droid to the doorstep; acoustic detect-and-avoid; docks that charge and load at the store |
| Regulatory | FAA Part 135 air carrier; FAA BVLOS approvals |
| Primary use | Home delivery of retail, restaurant and pharmacy orders within about 16 km of a dock |
| Operators | Walmart (Dallas-Fort Worth); Chipotle; Cleveland Clinic |
| Status | in service |
| Record updated | 2026-10 |
Official site: zipline.com
In context
Where it fits
Listed in Delivery Drones. Drones are compared on payload against range and endurance, how far the operation runs without people on site (docks, remote operations centers, detect-and-avoid), which approvals let it fly beyond visual line of sight, and who actually flies it.
| Model | Type | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Wingcopter 198 (Wingcopter) | hybrid VTOL | in production |
| MK30 (Amazon Prime Air) | hybrid VTOL | in service |
| Wing delivery aircraft (standard and large-payload) (Wing (Alphabet)) | hybrid VTOL | in service |
| Ark 40 (Fengyi Technology (SF Express)) | multirotor | in service |
| Sky2 (Flytrex) | multirotor | in service |
| M2 (Matternet) | multirotor | in service |
| Fourth-generation delivery drone (Meituan) | multirotor | in service |
| Platform 1 (P1 Zip) (Zipline) | fixed-wing | in service |
Sources
Sources and scope
- Scope
- Platform 2 (P2 Zip) (Zipline)
- Sources
- ElectronsX drones dataset; maker specifications, operator releases and FAA, EASA and CAAC approvals
- Updated
- 2026-10