​Wing Drone Delivery Takes Off at 5 Houston-Area Walmart Stores

Drone delivery of eggs, ground beef, baby wipes, over-the-counter medications, and other items has landed in the Greater Houston area.

The service will be operated by Alphabet drone delivery arm Wing, which on Thursday announced that drone delivery is live out of five Walmart Supercenters—one within Houston city limits, two in the suburb of Katy, and one apiece in Kemah and Crosby.

The launch marks Wing and Walmart’s first expansion of 2026, just days after the partners shared plans to add an additional 150 Walmart stores and 40 million potential customers to their network. Los Angeles, Miami, St. Louis, and Cincinnati were revealed as new markets, with more to come.

“This is our most ambitious year yet as we work with Walmart to deliver to more customers by drone than ever before, and there’s no better place to start than Greater Houston,” Heather Rivera, Wing’s chief business officer, said in a statement.

That’s in addition to the multistate, 100-store expansion the partners announced in June, covering Houston, Charlotte, North Carolina, Orlando and Tampa, Florida, and Atlanta, where they launched in December. Wing on Wednesday unveiled a new hub at Charlotte’s Northcross Shopping Center, adding that it now offers delivery from more than 50 merchants to about 30,000 households.

By 2027, Wing and Walmart hope to offer drone delivery out of 270 locations.

“The strong adoption we’ve seen confirms that this is the future of convenience,” said Greg Cathey, Walmart’s senior vice president of digital fulfillment transformation, in a statement on Sunday.

More Drones to Come

Wing has completed more than half a million drone deliveries since launching in Christiansburg, Virginia, in 2019, the year it obtained Part 135 air carrier authorization from the FAA.

The drones carry about 2.5 pounds of cargo, cruising at up to 60 mph at about 150 feet agl and capable of braving wind and rain. Upon reaching the customer’s address, they scan for obstacles on the ground below. Orders are then lowered on a tether to an area as small as a picnic blanket. In Greater Houston, Wing said deliveries will be as fast as 30 minutes.

Wing’s operations are overseen by remote pilots. But most tasks, including flight planning, traffic management, and preflight checks, are partially or fully automated. That includes the order loading process. Wing’s Autoloader—which can be installed on the side of a building or as a standalone apparatus in an empty parking space—allows store employees to simply leave orders curbside for the drones to collect.

In locations such as Dallas-Fort Worth, where Wing has been flying since 2022, the service is integrated with Walmart and DoorDash’s delivery platforms.

Drone delivery is not yet at the scale that operators like Wing envision. Its flagship drone, for example, is limited to a 6-mile service radius. But that could change with the FAA’s proposed Part 108 regulations for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations.

Published in August, the proposal would create formal rules and requirements for flying small drones where operators can’t see them. Wing and others have obtained these permissions via temporary waiver. But a Part 108 permit or certificate would make them permanent, expanding the range of their drones and allowing them to reach more customers. The rule also proposes allowing drones to fly in controlled airspace and over larger crowds of people.

Wing argued that the FAA’s proposal should go even further, such as by removing a provision that calls for Transportation Security Administration reviews of personnel. Pilots, however, expressed concern about allowing drones to fly in busy airspace. Thousands of them left comments on the proposed rule, and the FAA will consider them as it works through the process.

There is not yet an expected date for the final Part 108 rule. But a White House executive order in June directed the FAA to publish it by February 1. Wing lauded the order, which also contains provisions designed to spur domestic drone manufacturing.

“Getting this rule right is key to unlocking the full potential of drone delivery, enabling safe, efficient, and scalable services for communities across the country,” the company said in June.

Federal officials have repeatedly emphasized the importance of U.S. leadership in the global drone industry. In November, the State Department said it would award up to $150 million to Wing competitor Zipline under a three-year, “pay-for-performance” framework. The money would fund construction of new hubs in Africa that would triple the company’s facility footprint on the continent.