Finding
Drone delivery became a retail service in 2026 by flying small payloads from nests beside stores and fulfillment centers under FAA air-carrier certificates; operators that depended on a single retailer contract or on markets without a national framework paused or exited
Walmart passed 1 million drone deliveries in May 2026, with Zipline and Wing flying from its Dallas-Fort Worth stores, and Zipline passed 2 million deliveries worldwide in January. Amazon Prime Air flew from 11 US sites in August 2026 and targets 500 communities by year-end. Walmart ended DroneUp's contract in January 2025, and Manna paused its Irish deliveries in June 2026, citing the lack of a national framework for scaling.
The payload limit is a battery limit. A multirotor spends most of its energy hovering, so the useful payload falls quickly with range; the operators that scaled solved it with hybrid VTOL designs - Zipline P2, Wing and Amazon's MK30 hover to take off and land but cruise on wings - and by keeping the radius near 10-16 km. Zipline's P2 hovers about 90 m up and lowers a droid on a tether, Amazon releases parcels from about 4 m, and Wing lowers them on a line, so none of them land in the customer's yard.
The model that works is a nest beside the shelf. Walmart's network puts docks and charging pads in store parking lots, so a picker loads an aircraft minutes after an order lands, and one remote pilot supervises many aircraft under a Part 135 air-carrier certificate and BVLOS approvals. FAA Part 108 would turn those case-by-case approvals into a standing rule; it has been at White House review since July 10, 2026, and the FAA hopes to publish before the end of 2026. Docks and pads draw under 1 kW per aircraft - see Drone Docks and Charging.
China runs drone delivery as policy. Meituan completed more than 450,000 deliveries on 53 routes in Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing by the end of 2024 and received the CAAC's first nationwide low-altitude logistics certificate in 2025; its Keeta Drone brand flies in Hong Kong and Dubai. SF Express's Phoenix Wings flies Fengyi Technology's Ark 40, which carries 10 kg up to 20 km, on intra-city express routes. Medical logistics remains the other durable use: Zipline's fixed-wing P1 has flown blood and vaccines in Rwanda and Ghana since 2016 and 2019, and Matternet's type-certified M2 links hospital labs.
Directory
Delivery drone directory
Battery-electric only in this class; in service and in production first. Radius is the operator's stated one-way delivery distance.
| Model | Type | Country | Payload kg | Radius km | Autonomy | Approvals | Operators | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wingcopter 198 (Wingcopter) | hybrid VTOL | Germany | 6 | Autonomous tilt-rotor; drops up to three parcels at different points in one flight | EASA operations approvals | Health-logistics programs in Africa; retail pilots in Germany | in production | |
| MK30 (Amazon Prime Air) | hybrid VTOL | US | 2.3 | Autonomous with onboard detect-and-avoid and no live camera monitoring; six lift propellers and staggered tandem wings; releases the parcel from about 4 m after cameras confirm the drop zone is clear | FAA Part 135 air carrier (2020); FAA approval for BVLOS flight with onboard detect-and-avoid | Amazon (11 US sites in Aug 2026; Darlington, UK) | in service | |
| Ark 40 (Fengyi Technology (SF Express)) | multirotor | China | 10 | 20 | Autonomous route flights between SF Express sites | CAAC operating certificates held by Phoenix Wings, SF Express's drone airline | SF Express (Phoenix Wings) | in service |
| Sky2 (Flytrex) | multirotor | Israel | 3 | Autonomous; winch lowers the order to the yard; remote operations center | FAA BVLOS waivers | Uber Eats; restaurants and retailers in Dallas-Fort Worth | in service | |
| M2 (Matternet) | multirotor | US | 2 | 20 | Autonomous point-to-point flights between Matternet stations, supervised from a remote operations center | FAA type certificate (2022); Swiss FOCA approvals | Swiss and US hospital networks; UPS Flight Forward (earlier program) | in service |
| Fourth-generation delivery drone (Meituan) | multirotor | China | 5 | Autonomous; rooftop and kiosk landing stations; built for -20 to 50 C, moderate rain and snow and level-6 winds | CAAC nationwide low-altitude logistics operating certificate (first issued, 2025) | Meituan; Keeta Drone (Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Hong Kong, Dubai) | in service | |
| Wing delivery aircraft (standard and large-payload) (Wing (Alphabet)) | hybrid VTOL | US | 1.1-2.3 | 10 | Autonomous; one remote pilot supervises many aircraft; parcel lowered on a tether; store-side nests with charging pads and AutoLoader pickup | FAA Part 135 air carrier (first drone carrier, 2019); CASA approvals in Australia | Walmart; DoorDash | in service |
| Platform 1 (P1 Zip) (Zipline) | fixed-wing | US | 1.8 | 80 | Catapult launch, parachute drop and wire-arrest recovery; autonomous flight with remote supervision | FAA Part 135 air carrier (2023); national aviation approvals in Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya | Health ministries of Rwanda and Ghana; Nigerian and Kenyan state health programs | in service |
| Platform 2 (P2 Zip) (Zipline) | hybrid VTOL | US | 3.6 | 16 | 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 | FAA Part 135 air carrier; FAA BVLOS approvals | Walmart (Dallas-Fort Worth); Chipotle; Cleveland Clinic | in service |
| Manna delivery drone (Manna) | multirotor | Ireland | Autonomous flight with remote pilots; winch delivery to the customer's yard | EASA Light UAS Operator Certificate (Ireland); operational authorizations in the US and UK | Just Eat Takeaway; Tesco (Ireland); Irish deliveries paused June 2026 | paused | ||
| DroneUp delivery drone (DroneUp) | multirotor | US | Remote pilots from store-side hubs | FAA BVLOS waivers | Walmart (contract ended January 2025) | unconfirmed |
Scale
Who has flown the most deliveries
Cumulative commercial deliveries as each operator last reported them.
| Operator | Deliveries | As of | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zipline | 2 million+ | Jan 2026 | US (Walmart, health systems); Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya |
| Walmart network (Zipline and Wing) | 1 million | May 2026 | Dallas-Fort Worth and other US metros |
| Wing | 750,000+ | Jan 2026 | US; Australia |
| Meituan | 450,000+ | End 2024 | Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing; Hong Kong and Dubai (Keeta Drone) |
| Amazon Prime Air | Hundreds of thousands in 2026 | Aug 2026 | 11 US sites; Darlington, UK |
Exits and pauses
Exits, pauses and restarts
What stalled, and why.
| Operator | What happened | When | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| DroneUp | Walmart ended its delivery contract | Jan 2025 | Walmart consolidated on Wing and Zipline in Dallas-Fort Worth |
| Manna | Paused deliveries in Dublin and Cork; R&D stays in Ireland | Jun 2026 | No Irish national framework for drone delivery; focus moved to the US, UK and UAE |
| Amazon Prime Air | Paused after test crashes, then resumed; two MK30s struck a crane in Arizona | Jan and Oct 2025 | Sensor and software fixes; now expanding to 500 communities |
| Volocopter | Insolvent; VoloDrone cargo program ended | Dec 2024 | Funding ran out; sold to Diamond Aircraft (Wanfeng) in 2025 |
Stack
The delivery drone stack
| Layer | What it uses | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Airframe | Hybrid VTOL for range, multirotor for short hops | Zipline P2, Wing, MK30; Flytrex, Matternet, Meituan |
| Energy | High-rate lithium-ion packs, charged on the dock or pad | Store-side nests; Matternet and Meituan stations |
| Detect-and-avoid | Acoustic sensing, cameras and onboard algorithms | Zipline (acoustic), Amazon (onboard), others by waiver |
| Delivery | Tethered droid, winch or drop | Zipline droid, Wing tether, Flytrex winch, Amazon drop |
| Fleet operations | One remote pilot to many aircraft; order and store integration | Walmart, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Meituan apps |
Sources
Sources and scope
- Scope
- Delivery Drones
- Sources
- Walmart (May 2026); Zipline (Jan 2026); FreightWaves (Amazon, Aug 2026); Cargo Facts (DroneUp, Jan 2025); sUAS News (Manna, Jun 2026); TechNode and Jiemian (Meituan); Red Dot (Ark 40); UAV Coach (Part 108, Sep 2026)
- Updated
- October 2026