“After hundreds of thousands of test flights and years of piloting drone delivery in the U.S., Zipline has officially taken flight in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex with partner Walmart.

The world’s largest drone delivery provider announced Tuesday that residents located within 2 miles of a Walmart Supercenter in the suburb of Mesquite are eligible for delivery of more than 65,000 items in 30 minutes or less. Zipline told FLYING the first order in Mesquite included a dozen eggs, a bag of Popcorners chips, and flower bulbs for spring gardening. The company said Walmart will set the price of the service, which at launch is available for free.

The launch also marks the official introduction of Zipline’s Platform 2 (P2) delivery system, a successor to its Platform 1 (P1) designed for quiet, precise delivery in cities and suburbs—even in rain or 45 mph gusts of wind.

According to Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton, the service delivers 10 times faster than cars, with flight times for most orders under two minutes.”

From FLYING Magazine.

“Help may at last be on the way for the Nepali Sherpas who carry heavy loads for foreign climbers through treacherous sections of the world’s tallest peak.

When the main climbing season begins next month on Mount Everest, expedition companies will test drones that can ferry loads as heavy as 35 pounds in the high altitudes, bring back ladders used to set the climbing routes, and remove waste that is typically left behind.

Goods that would normally take seven hours to be transported by foot from Everest’s base camp to Camp I can be airlifted within 15 minutes. By lightening the Sherpas’ burdens, drone operators hope that the chances of fatal accidents — which have risen as climate change has accelerated snowmelt — can now be reduced.”

From New York Times.

“Stratospheric balloon company Sceye recently completed a feat that heralds the increased use of a new layer of the atmosphere for human exploration, the company told Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: The company’s helium-filled balloons can serve as an observation platform that occupies a niche between drones flying at lower altitudes and satellites orbiting above the planet.

This makes them attractive for Earth-observing applications, including climate-related monitoring and research.”

From Axios.

“When the experimental XB-1 aircraft broke the sound barrier three times during its first supersonic flight on 28 January, it did not produce a sonic boom audible from the ground…

the XB-1 took advantage of a physics phenomenon called the Mach cutoff. Because sound moves more slowly at higher altitudes, an aircraft breaching the sound barrier at those heights will produce a boom that cannot reach the ground – if the boom moves downward, the increasing speed of sound will deflect it, pushing its shock waves upward instead.”

From New Scientist.