Wing and Walmart Drone Deliveries Begin in Ponchatoula, Louisiana

Drone delivery company Wing has been delivering orders for US retailer Walmart in Ponchatoula, Louisiana, since October, Baton Rouge television station WBRZ reported on Friday. The city has about 7,800 residents and lies roughly 64 km (40 miles) northwest of New Orleans. WBRZ describes it as the first city in the state with Walmart drone delivery.

A Wing spokesperson briefed the Ponchatoula City Council on the service on Monday, November 9. The company's own website has not caught up: its Walmart delivery page lists six metros (Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Memphis and Orlando) as "Now serving" and 13 as "Coming soon". The only Louisiana entry is New Orleans, and it remains in the second group. The page does not say which towns that listing covers, so Ponchatoula may be the first stop of that rollout. WBRZ gives the October start without a specific date and does not name the store.

Wing and Walmart named New Orleans in June alongside six other metros. When deliveries began in Memphis, Wing published store numbers and addresses the same day. If WBRZ's October timing is correct, drones were flying in Louisiana before Memphis.

Ponchatoula is a first for Walmart but not for drone delivery in Louisiana: Amazon's Prime Air began deliveries in Baton Rouge on July 7.

Certification and noise

According to WBRZ, Wing's presentation told council members the drones are certified through the FAA, the US Federal Aviation Administration, at the same level as commercial airliners. That is the station's summary, not a Wing quote. Wing's October 29 post says every flight is backed by Part 135 air carrier certification, a rule set for charter and commuter operators, while large scheduled airlines fly under the separate Part 121 rules.

The average delivery flight takes under five minutes. The drones carry cameras, but no live image feed goes to anyone, including supervising pilots. The spokesperson said the aircraft are designed to "blend into neighborhood sounds" and are quieter than a delivery truck. Wing's post puts average overflight sound at 43 dBA, cruising altitude at 46 to 61 meters (150 to 200 feet), and says the package is lowered on a tether from about 7 meters (23 feet).