From Reno to Huntly: Nevada tech company SkyDrop creating drone hub in Waikato

A United States tech company wants to make Huntly drone central, and New Zealand the aerial delivery capital of the world.

SkyDrop (formerly Flirtey) has announced that it has now received Part 102 approval from New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to launch a drone hub in Huntly.

With this “ground-breaking” approval, SkyDrop claims to be the first company permitted for live store-to-door drone delivery in New Zealand, which includes certain beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations.

Now, it’s looking around for more customers beyond its trial partner, Domino’s.

It ran trials with Domino’s in 2016, creating a world first with the delivery of peri-peri chicken and chicken and cranberry pizzas in Whangaparāoa, north of Auckland. SkyDrop says its drones, two metres in diameter, are capable of carrying payloads of 3.5 kilograms.

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“Now that SkyDrop has this ground-breaking approval, we are looking for new customers in New Zealand and Huntly,” said SkyDrop founder and chief executive Matthew Sweeny.

Its delivery drones are already on-site in New Zealand, and he said the company plans to start expanding deliveries in the next couple of months.

The company is light on details of how the drones will operate, but say they fly autonomously, with a remote operator overseeing the flight with the ability to command the drone “if needed for safety”.

Initially, the target market is the nearly 10,000 people and businesses in Huntly, and the CAA approval was a stepping stone to make drone delivery accessible to larger populations.

SkyDrop designs and builds the drones the company first made history with in 2015, when it conducted the first Federal Aviation Administration-approved drone delivery in the US ever. It has done ship-to-shore deliveries and commercial deliveries in the US.

The company was started by Sweeny in Australia before shifting to Nevada about eight years ago.

SkyDrop has also received approvals from Waikato District Council following engagement with local stakeholders in Rāhui Pōkeka [Huntly], including the Waahi Pā, which named a SkyDrop drone te kāhu [the hawk].

In November last year, Domino’s ran a three-day trial in the town, and promised aerial deliveries would cost no more than terrestrial ones, which its website shows have a delivery service fee of 7 per cent of an order, capped at $4.

It warned then that bad weather may affect drone deliveries, which have a delivery altitude of up to 60m – meaning they can hover and lower the package gently to the ground from a safe height.

During the trial, it asked customers to wait for their order to be gently lowered to the ground, and to not retrieve their order until the package was safely released and the drone had started flying away.

Domino’s said in the announcement around the trial that the drone used in this trial would be equipped with many safety features, including the ability to automatically return to the store, conduct a safe landing in a pre-designated landing area, and it had a parachute system for added safety.

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Domino’s today said during the three-day pre-trial, Domino’s and SkyDrop tested the flow of in-store operations to ensure the delivery process was streamlined in preparation for a six-week commercial trial this year.

“Domino’s is committed to exploring the possibility of drone delivery with SkyDrop,” said a spokeswoman.

Sweney said underpinning CAA approval was the parachute system, which was reviewed by the authority.

He said drone deliveries enabled speedier and cheaper delivery for local communities, and they also reduce traffic congestion and greenhouse emissions.

The company now had the foundation to scale up, because the risk assessment method that secured this approval can be adapted to additional locations to build a nationwide network of drone hubs across New Zealand and in Australia, Canada and the European Union, which all use the same drone operation systems.

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Sweeny is urging businesses or New Zealand towns that want drone delivery to contact his company.

CAA said SkyDrop is the first organisation in New Zealand to commence commercial delivery of consumer goods.

The company’s plans underwent a ‘‘careful, bespoke risk-assessment’' before gaining approval, and it has been a phased process, said a spokesman.

It can currently conduct these approved delivery operations during daylight hours, within the geographical area of Huntly, below 400ft (121m).

New Zealand is seen as a good testing ground for drone technology. In 2015, then-Transport Minister Simon Bridges said he was keen to push ahead with “light-handed risk-based” rules around drones after meeting politicians, US regulators and companies including Google.

Australia-based Swoop Aero early this year announced it had got approval to operate BVLOS to run drone flights on the West Coast, in partnership with Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand.

The CAA approvals enabled Swoop to conduct its drone operations remotely, with a single pilot operating up to five drones at a time. It plans to transport medical samples between Westport and Greymouth for processing.

The drones had flight paths programmed, but a pilot could fly them remotely if necessary.