If you get a hankering for some KFC, there’s a new delivery service that will get your food to you by drone.
Wing, Australia’s first on-demand drone delivery service, have teamed up with Kentucky Fried Chicken to provide the service to deliver hot and fresh menu items to the homes and businesses of Logan in Queensland.
This is a proof-of-concept service that will use the southeast Queensland town and, in particular, Kingston, Logan Central, Slacks Creek, Underwood, and Woodridge.
The service will eventually expand to include other nearby locations.
So if you live in one of these areas and craving a Zinger burger, some chicken Nuggets and some original recipe chicken, you simply download the Wing delivery app from the App Store or Google Play Store, choose what you want to order, enter your address and submit it.
KFC will then freshly prepare your food at the Wing delivery site and deliver it to you within minutes by drone at no extra charge.
Up until now, KFC fans have been enjoying traditional ground delivery methods.
In fact, 46 per cent of KFC restaurants globally offer delivery.
Wing’s drones are custom designed to deliver packages safely and quickly.
Once an order is submitted, the drone flies to pick up the package and then climbs to a safe flying altitude and travels to the destination.
Once it arrives, the drone slows down and hovers before descending to a height of seven metres before lowering the package to the ground on a tether which automatically releases the package in the desired delivery area.
The drone does not actually land but rather climbs back to cruising height and returns to the delivery facility.
The wing drone has a wingspan of 1.3 metres and weighs about 5kg and can carry packages up to 1.5kg at speeds of more than 110km/h.
To date, the fastest Wing delivery has been in two minutes and 47 seconds.
Wing is operating in Australia, Finland and the US.
This new partnership between KFC and Wing will expand that delivery offering and provide an all-new option for customers to have their favourite meals delivered by air.
“We’re excited to be teaming up with KFC, to expand their delivery options for customers by taking its customer favourites to new heights, through the skies of Logan, Queensland — the drone delivery capital of the world,” Dave Ojiako-Pettit, Wing’s City Manager, Queensland, said.
“We’ve seen a significant increase in use of our on-demand drone delivery service in Southeast Queensland.
“Wing made more than 100,000 deliveries to the Logan community in 2021, with many customers finding on-demand drone delivery especially useful as they stayed home and relied on our contactless service to deliver the things they needed.
Kristi Woolrych, CMO KFC Australia said: “We’re always looking for ways to enhance the customer experience, so we’re thrilled to be teaming up with Wing to provide the Logan community this Aussie first.
“Given the last 18 months, Australians have relied on delivery more and more, so it’s great to be making life easier for fans who want to get their hands on KFC in a flash.
“You know the future truly is here when you can get hot, fresh Kentucky Fried Chicken delivered by a drone from the click of a few buttons.”
Drone delivery is something we are going to see more of in the near future.
Drones, and the systems behind them, are getting smarter and more intuitive and they will become a trusted delivery method in more areas around the world, including densely populated areas.
In the smart cities of the future, there will be designated flight paths for drones to deliver a variety of goods from food, groceries, medicine and other small items.
Along this path, there will also be charging stations for the drones to recharge, if necessary, on their way to their destination.