Wing, an offshoot of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, will launch drone deliveries to one of Finland’s most populous areas next month according to a recent blog post from the company.
Pilot deliveries will be rolled out in the Vousari district of Finland’s capital, Helsinki, and will deliver products from gourmet supermarket Herkku foods and Cafe Monami.
As noted by Wing, deliveries will include ‘fresh Finnish pastries, meatballs for two, and a range of other meals and snacks’ that can be delivered in minutes.
Wing’s entrance into Vousari will mark a significant step forward for Wing in testing drones’ performance in urban areas, in particular deliveries made to multi-family housing.
According to a municipal website for Vousari, the district contains about 37,000 people and spans an area of almost six square miles — about 15 kilometers.
For Wing, it’s pilot tests in Finland will likely serve as a barometer for more beginning-stage deployments in the U.S.
Last month, Wing became the first commercial drone operations to be green-lit by the FAA to begin making deliveries in Virginia.
The precedent, which was foreshadowed by the FAA’s Unmanned Aircraft System Integration Executive Director, Jay Merkle, last month, is a major step for commercial drones in the U.S. where regulators have been slow to allow widespread usage.
Approval of the drones effectively classified the company as a small aircraft operator — a determination that carries a stringent set of mandatory guidelines.
According to a report from Bloomberg, Wing will begin carrying out deliveries in two towns in the state of Virginia — Blacksburg and Christiansburg — as it hammers out details of the company’s operations.
It will start by partnering with local businesses to deliver products to those areas.
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