Google's Moonshot Factory is known for it's successful culture of failure. They tackle huge problems with huge solutions. Their encouragement of early and frequent failure allows them to free up resources from dead-end projects so they can be devoted to successful pursuits. Project Wing has not only survived attempts to prove it cannot succeed, it's team has quietly been conducting flights in Virginia with the hopes of beginning deliveries by Drone in 2017. 

At Project Wing we're building the next generation of automated aircraft, and working toward the day when these vehicles deliver everything from consumer goods to emergency medicine - a new commerce system that opens up universal access to the sky. www.solveforx.com/wing

While it may seem trivial, Google's plans to implement and track the data they derive from deliveries of Chipotle burritos to Virginia Tech students indicates that they see long term and big dollar implications for this project.

They plan to carefully analyze recipients reactions to receiving their packages from Project Wing's aircraft.

Last Monday an aircraft was spotted hovering overhead near Virginia Tech. It descended to about 10 feet, hovered over a grass patch and then lowered a large white package to the ground on a string. The drone then flew away, leaving the package and string on the ground.

A woman with a clipboard walked over somewhat unceremoniously, cut the string and carried the package back to a staging area where test subjects watched from behind a safety net.

The process was repeated about 10 times in a 30-minute span on Monday. Sometimes, multiple orders were brought in at the same time on two separate drones flying near each other.

Credit: The Roanoke Times

Credit: The Roanoke Times

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