Deutsche Post DHL Follows Amazon and Google in Testing Delivery Drones

Another delivery drone will hit the skies–this time it’s Deutsche Post DHL’s parcelcopter. On Wednesday, DHL said it will start using an unmanned aircraft to carry medicine to the small German island of Juist.

BERLIN— Deutsche Post DHL AG said it would use a drone to deliver medication to a German island in the North Sea, marking the first routine drone delivery to customers and another step in the rapid advancement of the technology.

DHL said Wednesday that as part of a month-long feasibility project, it will start using unmanned aircraft this week to carry medicine from the harbor town of Norddeich, Germany, to the small island of Juist. Each day—depending on weather—the drone will fly autonomously on a preprogrammed seven-and-a-half-mile route, the first routine missions in Europe in which a drone will operate beyond the pilot’s eyesight, DHL said.

DHL’s plans follow those of Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc., which have each tested their own delivery drones. Those U.S. Internet companies have said the routine deployment of the devices is years away—in part because of regulatory challenges—but DHL is hoping to demonstrate that the technology is ready for some real-world applications.

Drone makers and observers have touted the potential for drone deliveries in remote areas where existing infrastructure makes shipping difficult. Governments have also been more willing to authorize drone flights over less populated areas, so the technology is expected to arrive first in islands like Juist, where there are no cars, and the remote outback in Queensland, Australia, where Google tested its delivery drones.

Several government agencies worked together to establish a restricted flight area specifically for the North Sea drone flights, DHL said. U.S. aviation authorities have moved more slowly than other countries in approving commercial-drone flights, even for testing, prompting Amazon to conduct some of its tests in Canada, and Google in Australia.

DHL launched its drone-research project last year in Bonn, Germany, delivering medication across the Rhine River to a lawn behind the company’s headquarters. In that weeklong project, a pilot on the ground controlled the bright-yellow quadcopter—a small helicopter with four rotors—on its one-and-a-half-mile round trip.

DHL said its partners, Microdrones GmbH and a German university, revamped the drone for the new project to withstand the wind and weather conditions of the North Sea.

The drone will land on a specified field in Juist, where DHL couriers will retrieve the parcels and deliver them to residents and vacationers on the island. DHL said pilots on the ground in Norddeich will stay in contact with air-traffic controllers and monitor the drone in case they need to intervene.