UAS Deliveries Headed to the Campus of Virginia Tech
The Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership and X's Project Wing will team up to conduct research flights on the campus of Virginia Tech in an effort to test deliveries via UAS. Starting this fall, food will be delivered by UAS, and for Virginia Tech President Tim Sands, this initiative is a bit of a premonition from last year.
“Last year while discussing the entrepreneurial spirit at Virginia Tech, I jokingly speculated we might one day have quadcopters delivering ramen noodles around campus — apparently I wasn’t off by much,” said Sands in a press release published by the school. “This is what happens when great partners work together in a collaborative, innovative environment.”
Currently, the tests are being conducted at a closed site with a small number of students and employees. Once the tests go public, they will be used to collect data on the technological and safety aspects of the deliveries, as well as user experience. The research is a part of a $75 million initiative that Virginia Tech has launched to create opportunities in the world of “intelligent infrastructure for human-centered communities.”
“Virginia Tech has long been a champion of aviation safety, innovation and entrepreneurship,” says Project Wing lead Dave Vos. “Our collaboration will generate new data on the operation of a delivery system and aircraft and will help gather insights about how people might use an aerial delivery system in their daily lives.”
If all goes well, the data and research collected can help Project Wing with meeting their goal of integrating UAS deliveries into everyday life. For Project Wing, this collaboration with the Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership is a first on several fronts. It will be Project Wing’s first test with external users inside of the United States, and it will also be the first partnership with a Federal Aviation Administration-approved unmanned aircraft test site.
