Traffic Jam at 400 Feet

NASA and the FAA are preparing to revolutionize air traffic control for the drone era

- Chris Feliciano Arnold

“Please stay clear of the flight line,” warns Keith Hyde, director of U.S. operations for Wing. Safety comes first on these two fenced-off acres at the dead end of Welcome Street in Christiansburg, Va., where Wing has since 2019 been running the first North American drone delivery service. The drones are electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL, pronounced “ev-tol”) aircraft, so instead of a runway, they park on a grid of landing pads that double as charging stations. Three dozen of the pads are arranged on a gravel patch the size of a basketball court, each topped with a QR code large enough for an incoming drone to scan and confirm its touchdown location.

Wing, owned by Alphabet Inc., has no competition for the skies over Christiansburg, a town of 22,000 not far from Virginia Tech, and it operates only in clear, windless weather. Its drones are made of light plastic and polystyrene but still weigh in at 10 pounds because of the controllers, lasers, cameras, and battery packs required to achieve their 12-mile roundtrip range. This morning a dozen drones recharge, awaiting orders. The flight line is flanked by 11 shipping containers. The ones labeled C1, C2, and C3 are where the drones “sleep” during off-hours. Containers C3, C4, C5, and C6 hold inventory from partners such as Walgreens, a local coffee shop, and an area Girl Scout troop, which relied on Wing to shore up flagging cookie sales during the pandemic.