The flight technology company's demonstration was designed to show the potential for drone involvement in both commercial deliveries and medical or disaster operations, according to a statement by Bell and real estate development company Hillwood.
“We are carving a path forward for future commercial operations to solve the supply chain challenges our world currently faces,” Hillwood Chair Ross Perot Jr. said about the project.
Hillwood, the company that partnered with Fort Worth to develop the area around the Fort Worth Alliance Airport, established a mobility innovation zone to develop transportation technologies, such as the Bell delivery drone, for commercial purposes. TuSimple, an autonomous trucking company, recently announced it will construct an Alliance facility to take advantage of the area’s infrastructure and resources.
The drone, called an autonomous pod transport, took off from the AllianceTexas Flight Test Center and landed at Pecan Square, a planned community in Northlake. The flight path included fields and residential areas and came close to I-35W, demonstrating different conditions that commercial deliveries require, and the varied landscape across the AllianceTexas development, according to the statement.
"There is a lot of money in logistics, and Dallas-Fort Worth has a producer and a consumer base,” Hillwood President Bill Burton said.
