“Walmart is bringing drone deliveries to three more states.

On Thursday, the big-box retailer said it plans to launch the speedier delivery option at 100 stores in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Orlando and Tampa within the coming year. With the expansion, Walmart’s drone deliveries will be available in a total of five states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.

Customers will request a delivery through the app of Wing, the operator who flies the drones through a deal with Walmart. The drone operator will have an up to a six-mile range from stores.”

From CNBC.

“Batteries are nearing their limits in terms of how much power they can store for a given weight. That’s a serious obstacle for energy innovation and the search for new ways to power airplanes, trains, and ships. Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have come up with a solution that could help electrify these transportation systems.

Instead of a battery, the new concept is a kind of fuel cell — which is similar to a battery but can be quickly refueled rather than recharged. In this case, the fuel is liquid sodium metal, an inexpensive and widely available commodity. The other side of the cell is just ordinary air, which serves as a source of oxygen atoms. In between, a layer of solid ceramic material serves as the electrolyte, allowing sodium ions to pass freely through, and a porous air-facing electrode helps the sodium to chemically react with oxygen and produce electricity.

In a series of experiments with a prototype device, the researchers demonstrated that this cell could carry more than three times as much energy per unit of weight as the lithium-ion batteries used in virtually all electric vehicles today.”

From MIT News.

“President Trump has issued an executive order ‘leading the world in supersonic flight’ which requires the Federal Aviation Administration to remove restrictions on supersonic flights within U.S. airspace. The existing noise rules have been in place since 1968, and a corresponding FAA restriction on flights exceeding Mach 1 established in 1970. These rules previously prevented Concorde operations on transcontinental flights.

The FAA has reviewed this rule in recent years but made no changes to the overland flight restriction. The new Trump executive order requires the FAA to repeal its ‘prohibition on overland supersonic flight, establish an interim noise-based-certification standard, and repeal other regulations that hinder supersonic flight.’

The FAA would need to repeal the prohibition on overland supersonic flight in 14 CFR 91.817 within 180 days and issue a Notice of Proposed Rule Making to establish a standard for supersonic aircraft certification within 18 months of the order.”

From Forbes.

“In response to ongoing disruptions in United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded supply chains, the Government of Ghana has partnered with autonomous drone logistics company Zipline to maintain the flow of essential medical supplies across the country…

According to a statement seen by Techpoint Africa, the partnership allows for an uninterrupted supply of medical essentials, including malaria test kits and treatments, medications for pain, cough, and parasitic infections, as well as nutrition supplements.”

From Techpoint Africa.