Delivery drones are being looked at as the next best thing for transportation of small quantities of goods. The concept of drones delivering products is not new and has been around since the dawn of this decade however it’s still not widely accepted and also has been restricted in countries like USA. But this has not deterred companies like Dominos and Amazon from experiment with the lucrative drone delivery option. Like any other sector we can think of, 3D Printing is also being used as a tool to improve and improvise the capabilities of drones and is companies like dominos are taking special interest in making their delivery drones using 3D printers.

Dominos experimented with first 3D printed pizza drone way back in June 2013 when an independent British franchise delivered pizza using a drone they called DomiCopter. This Drone was made as joint effort between U.K. drone specialists AeroSight, Big Communications and creative agency T + Biscuits. A short footage video was released in June 2013. Source Wikipedia

This successful launch led the New Zealand branch to float a survey to its clients about Drone Delivery and 70% of Domino’s customers said that they would happily use the service

This gave birth to the world’s first pizza-by-drone delivery service to start in partnership with drone company Flirtey. The company now offers autonomous delivery of Domino’s pizzas to select customer homes in New Zealand. This is a trail run and both the companies are keeping a close eye on the success which will decide the fate of further expansion

Dominos and Flirty released a press release yesterday which said that the Drones used for pizza delivery are proprietary drones which has customised hardware and software with added safety features. Special packaging is made for the Pizza Delivery Drone which gives extra protection in case of any UN called accident. These Custom Made 3D printed Pizza delivery drones are made using Carbon fibre composites, aluminium, and 3D printed components. They have added security features like low-battery return-to-safe-location programming and auto-return-home commands. These drones are also pretty fast and promise to skip traffic and deliver pizza on time – every time.

Matthew Sweeny the CEO of Flirtey said “We are moving closer and closer to widespread store-to-door drone delivery. To conduct these deliveries in an urban environment while delivering a hot, fresh pizza, is a ­­­validation of our delivery system that assures Flirtey is prepared for mass market deliveries around the globe.”

Scott Bush (Domino's NZ), Emma Norman, Johnny Norman,Samantha Sharif (Flirtey NZ)

Don Meij, Domino's Group CEO and Managing Director added “Drones offer the promise of safer, faster deliveries to an expanded delivery area, meaning more customers can expect to receive a freshly-made order within our ultimate target of 10 minutes. This is the future! We are thrilled with the results of our trials, and look forward to expanding DRU Drone by Flirtey soon. We invested in this partnership, and technology, because we believe drone delivery will be an essential component of our pizza deliveries, so even more customers can receive the freshest, hottest pizza we can offer.”

The use of such delivery drones are subject to choice for now as some might not be very comfortable with it but for country like New Zealand which is sparsely populated it makes a feasible delivery mode. Who knows one day I may get my Starbucks Coffee on such 3D Printed Drone till then have fun 3d Printing.