THE success of a drone food delivery service in the Logan area has prompted aviation company Wing to set up a similar operation at the Orion shopping centre in Springfield.
The service involving a partnership with DoorDash commenced operations last Friday with drops into an area up to seven kilometres from the Springfield Central based Orion.
Before you get too excited about what food you can order you just need to know that only Sushi Hub is currently available.
Wing Australia has now set up a nest of drones on the top floor carpark of Orion Shopping Centre.
The high tech drones travel at 110km/h and can carry up to 1kg of food.
That means if you are in to sushi you can have it dropped off at your front door in just minutes.
Wing Australia general manager Simon Rossi said the drone delivery system was fully autonomous, with off-base pilots merely monitoring the online system from afar.
“A customer simply goes to DoorDash app and clicks on ‘airstores,’ order, and then that order goes to the kitchen while our system starts planning how it will fly to that customer,” he said.
“It takes off to their residence, hovers at about 7m, drops a tether which is holding the parcel.”
The customer then simply takes the bag off the tether and the drone returns to its nest base.
Mr Rossi said he was keen to talk to other Ipswich Shopping centres and their food retailers about becoming involved in the project.
“For them to host a nest they will need to be able to provide an area where a hub can be established.”
In the meantime, he said they were looking to expand the offering at Orion from more than just the one current outlet.
Cr Nicole Jonic said the council’s Office of Economic Development had worked closely with Wing to help it take flight in Ipswich. “Council had helped in analysing possible launch sites, taking into account feasibility of local business and customers,” Cr Jonic said.
