Flirtey details new drone delivery system, the Eagle

By Luke Geiver | September 11, 2019

Drone delivery system developer Flirtey has unveiled a new system that could be performing routine operations next year. To announce its new Flirtey Eagle, the Nevada-based company took the stage at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, introduced Flirtey CEO Matthew Sweeny to the press and explained her state’s role in helping Sweeny and his team. “Nevada is an innovative state,” Matso said, “and supporting the development of UAS technologies is one of my main roles in the U.S. Senate,” adding that supporting UAS is a no-brainer and is not a bipartisan issue.

After explaining Flirtey’s unique place among tech giants like Google and Amazon also competing in the drone space, Sweeny described the new drone system from his company that will be in operation next year.

The product combines three unique features that allow for drone deliveries to homes in less than 10 minutes.

The multirotor drone can operate in 95 percent of most weather conditions with a payload that Sweeny said is up to twice as its competitors. To send items like medical supplies or food, Flirtey has also developed a takeoff and landing platform that enables scalable operations from various stores across America. The takeoff platform fits in the dimensions of a parking spot. And, according to Sweeny, work with the FAA on the UAS Integration Pilot Program, has helped the company receive approval for one remote pilot to fly 10 drones at once.

“Today over 8 billion packages are delivered every year in the U.S.,” Sweeny said. “Flirtey is on track to conduct routine deliveries to homes this year and conduct commercial operations in 2020.”

To build his company in the U.S. after taking a one-way flight from Australia, Sweeny hired the former head of NASA’s drone program, along with engineers from Raytheon, SpaceX and veterans from the U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force.

Flirtey’s system is a multirotor platform with a tether that hovers over a delivery point while lowering a package to a receipt point below.

For more on the Eagle, the company has produced a video here.