It looks like a lot of stuff was happening at the Aviation Africa Summit in Kigali, Rwanda last week.
Aside from EHang holding the first ever passenger drone demo flights on African soil, drone logistics company Zipline also announced plans to introduce their Platform 2 urban delivery unmanned aerial vehicles in the country starting next year.
Rwanda has housed Zipline drones since 2016. It was the first country to open its skies to a new start-up working on a new uncrewed aerial solution to deliver life-saving medical supplies to inaccessible communities.
Since then, Zipline has grown its operations into the rest of the world, and the relationship with the Rwandese government has also made strides from strength to strength – to the effect that Rwanda is the only country so far that has every corner of its land being served by at least one Zipline drone.
Now the drone company is looking to expand that relationship into urban areas where the Platform 2 drone system will deliver parcels into people’s homes.
According to Pierre Kayitana, the General Manager at Zipline Rwanda, the new service should be operational in the coming year.
“Hopefully, in 2026, we should be able to present something to the general public in Kigali where we can do home deliveries,” Kayitana said.
“So, we are really excited to complete the test phase and stabilise it as much as possible before we can launch and operate.”
The drone company also debuted the urban delivery drones at the summit.
“The company’s next generation home delivery platform is practically silent (designed to sound like wind rustling leaves), and is expected to deliver up to seven times as fast as traditional automobile delivery, completing 10-mile deliveries in about 10 minutes,” Zipline said in a statement at the launch of the P2 in 2023
Clearly developed with the urban consumer delivery market in mind, the new P2 Zips have a flight range of a 10-mile (about 16km) service radius while carrying a 6-8-pound payload for out-and-back deliveries from a single dock (more on the docking system later).
Alternatively, it can also fly up to 24 miles (nearly 38.5km) one way from dock to dock, charging at each dock before picking up its next delivery.
The main attraction that sets this new drone apart from its predecessors is the package-holding droid mechanism that will tether parcels safely to the ground at their destination to deliver the package, before winching back up to the Zip – marking a significant advancement in the potential for direct-to-home deliveries in Kigali.
“Zipline has spent the last several years building and fine tuning its next generation technology, Platform 2 (P2), to provide an optimal customer experience at scale,” the company said.
“Unlike other drone delivery services, Zipline’s drones (Zips) fly more than 300 feet above the ground and are nearly inaudible.
"When the Zip arrives at its destination, it hovers safely and quietly at that altitude, while its fully autonomous delivery droid manoeuvres down a tether, steers to the correct location, and gently drops off its package to areas as small as a patio table or the front steps of a home.”