Alphabet Inc.’s Wing Aviation LLC subsidiary is bringing its delivery drones to Christiansburg, Virginia.

The 22,000-person town in Montgomery County will become the site of a pilot program meant to test the viability of autonomous air transport. In the blog post announcing the project today, Wing said the first drones are set to take flight this fall.

Wing is essentially replicating the existing drone pilot program it’s running in Canberra. As in the Australian capital, the Alphabet subsidiary will partner with local companies to make an air delivery option available for a subset of their customers. Wing has lined up three partners so far in Christiansburg: FedEx Corp., Walgreens Co. and local confectionery chain Sugar Magnolia.

The drones will transport items ranging from sweets to over-the-counter medicine around town at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. According to Wing, that means the fleet can fulfill most orders within 10 minutes of the user finalizing the purchase on a partner business’ website.

Workers at the participating companies will secure merchandise onto the drones using a tether that also doubles as the drop-off mechanism. When a drone arrives at the customer’s location, it lowers the line with the package attached, waits for the user to take the items and then flies off.

The announcement of the pilot program comes less than six months after Wing received regulatory approval to operate as an air carrier in the U.S. At the time, the group indicated it was also planning to launch drone deliveries in Blacksburg, a town located just a 15-minute drive from Christiansburg.

Alphabet isn’t the only tech giant that has taken aim at the air freight industry. Amazon.com Inc. stated in July that it hopes to start delivering some orders by drone within months, using its own internally designed aircraft no less. The online retail giant’s engineers have developed a six-rotor drone with a hexagonal “shroud” that can take off like a helicopter and fly like a plane. 

Photo: Wing