Deseret UAS September Newsletter

DRONE DELIVERY AT YOUR SERVICE

Food delivery coming to you in just 30 minutes! That’s how quickly Walmart plans to deliver your order right to your home. For a small fee of $3.99, customers who live within a 10-mile range of a nearby Walmart can order up to 10 pounds of groceries and household items between 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. each day. David Guggina, senior vice president of innovation and automation for Walmart U.S., says, "If it fits safely, it flies."

Walmart plans to deliver up to 1 million packages via drone by the end of 2022 with the recent expansion of the company's DroneUp delivery network to over 4 million households from Virginia to Utah. It's an impressive move that's one giant leap for Utah's advanced air mobility industry, but it doesn't look like the program is going to be profitable right from the start.

That's why Walmart plans to utilize its drones for more diverse uses, including to help construction companies with on-site aerial photography. “Not only will the added revenue help offset the cost of delivery, but it also serves the entire drone industry by gathering more flight data as we work together to expand drone operations in a safe and regulated way,” the company said.

Walmart says that DroneUp’s team of pilots will operate within the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) guidelines. Once an order is placed and fulfilled, the drone travels to its destination and gently lowers the package onto a customer’s porch using a cable.

Walmart says it hopes to eventually give back to communities by offering its drone infrastructure to assist in areas like emergency response.

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ELECTRIC AVIATION COMING SOON TO UTAH

The Utah State University (USU) ASPIRE program is one of four newly created Engineering Research Centers (ERC) funded by the National Science Foundation. Utah has not had an ERC for over 30 years and ASPIRE is the only ERC dedicated to advancing sustainable transportation.

ASPIRE has begun the research process to develop new infrastructure that facilitates widespread adoption of electric vehicles. “Now is the time to move past century-old mindsets and rethink how roadways and electric grid infrastructure can be co-designed to support low-cost, sustainable solutions for vehicle electrification and decarbonization of the electric grid,” says Regan Zane, USU professor and ASPIRE center director.

USU will play a big role in leading the research, collaborating with the following universities around the world:

University of Colorado in Boulder
University of Colorado in Colorado Springs
Colorado State University in Fort Collins
University of Texas in El Paso
University of Auckland in New Zealand
Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg
Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York

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BREEZE AIRWAYS AND ALLEGIANT EXPAND THEIR HORIZONS

Breeze Airways just made the Provo airport in Utah their home. The airline has announced it will be expanding routes later this year to the following destinations:

Phoenix, Arizona
Charleston, South Carolina
Los Angeles, California

Can hardly wait? You can also look forward to flying to Las Vegas, Nevada, and Westchester, New York, starting on October 5. Breeze will continue to perform flights to San Francisco and San Bernardino, California, with the new addition of a one-stop option in San Francisco from Provo to San Bernardino.

Allegiant celebrated the completion of their first nonstop flight from the San Diego International Airport (SAN) to the Provo Municipal Airport (PVU) on August 18. Allegiant is the only airline currently operating flights between the two cities.

“The addition of Provo as a new city accessible from SAN on Allegiant will benefit our region as visitors from Utah will have an opportunity to visit our beaches, experience our amusement parks, and enjoy our culturally diverse restaurant offerings,” said Kimberly Becker, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority president & CEO. “San Diegans looking to partake in winter sports and outdoor recreation will appreciate the easy nonstop flight up north. Thank you, Allegiant, for continuing to add unique destinations from SAN.”

SCHEDULE YOUR FLIGHT TODAY

VINEYARD STATION READY FOR TAKEOFF

Utah opened a new transit commuter rail station on August 12! The Vineyard Station is a huge success for the community as it is now one of only three transit-oriented hubs along the Wasatch Front. Vineyard residents celebrated with a fun public gathering that included food trucks, music and an epic drone show hosted by Go Drones!

WATCH THE SHOW

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHT

Experienced with features, advantages, welding, and packaging of all lithium-ion chemistries and form factors, EPS comes from a legacy of building aviation, military, and commercial standard power. Safe, reliable and certifiable, EPS lithium battery solutions disrupts the way we look at powering the commercial and military-grade projects of the future. EP Systems relocated to Logan, Utah specifically to take advantage of the Industry Partnership Program, as well as other state programs and opportunities such as working with scientists and engineers at USU.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Commercial UAV Expo
Las Vegas, Nevada
September 6 - 8
Register N ow

Girls in Aviation Day 2022
Logan-Cache Airport
September 17
Register Now

Utah State University Aviation Career Fair
Logan, Utah
September 29
Register for a Booth

2022 UAS Summit and Expo
Grand Forks, North Dakota
October 4 - 5
Register N ow

ASPIRE ERC Annual Meeting 2022
ASPIRE Center in Logan, Utah
October 17 - 19
Register Now

AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2023
Denver, Colorado
May 8 - 11
Register Now

ABOUT DESERET UAS

Deseret UAS is a non-profit corporation created jointly by Tooele and Box Elder Counties, in close partnership with Ogden City. As the premier organization in Utah dedicated to Advanced Air Mobililty (AAM), Deseret UAS provides unparalleled access to several large flight test ranges with miles of wide-open land and air. We offer active commercial UAS/AAM flight test ranges, foster applied research, and provide a centralized source of information on AAM in Utah.