A new drone delivery trial in Blanchardstown aims to reach up to 1.5 million people, making it the largest drone operation worldwide.
Drone delivery company Manna began making delivering takeaways in Balbriggan, North County Dublin last year, and now aims to launch the service in 25 new locations.
The expansion will see the company delivering a range of products and food straight to a customer's door using drone technology.
On The Pat Kenny Show, Manna CEO Bobby Healy said each aircraft can carry 3.5 kilos and 30 litres of volume.
In the last year, Manna has completed over 100,000 drone deliveries, and their new trial aims to offer deliveries within a 3.5km radius – in under three minutes.
Delivery
Mr Healy said the delivery application will allow users to fill their baskets, and then they will be asked to provide an exact location of exactly where the delivery should be made.
"It flies at an airspeed of about 100 kilometres per hour to the pin drop and then it descends to about 15 metres and it hovers there," he said.
"The doors underneath – the cargo bay doors – open and we winch the product down to the ground. It takes about six seconds when it leaves the aircraft to get to the ground."
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While the service is currently limited to grocery, coffee and takeaway vendors, Mr Healy said Manna is expanding to provide pharmacy deliveries.
"We will have all the pharmacy products that are over-the-shelf pharmacy products ... if your kid has a fever at midnight, there's nowhere to get Nurofen, we can get to you in three minutes," he said.
"The vendor charges, so we just pass on their price and then we charge a €4.20 delivery fee."
Safety
Mr Healy said the aircraft is "about the size of a large golden retriever", with four propellers on top.
"It's sealed by cargo bay doors that are made from carbon fibre – really, really strong," he said.
"They're designed so they fly in an airspeed of 110 km/h – which is ground speed of 60km/h– and then winds of 13 metres per second, which is about 50km/h winds.
"It's an aviation-grade product and it has to be because we're flying over people.
"We have a parachute on board. So, in the worst event, if something went horribly wrong ... the parachute deploys and we bring the aircraft to the ground and it will damage the aircraft but it won't hurt anybody."
A Manna Aero drone is seen as it delivers essential household and medical supplies in the village of Moneygall, Offaly. Image: REUTERS / Alamy Stock PhotoBlanchardstown
The expansion into Blanchardstown will begin in September, with a "full throttle" launch beginning in October.
"We partnered with Tesco for Balbriggan, and we will do the same [in Blanchardstown] with a grocery provider because groceries are important," he said.
"Then literally all of the small local vendors we'd expect to participate in some way because in the end, what chip shop or restaurant doesn't want to reach 120,000 customers in three minutes?
"We'll never do cigarettes; we may do alcohol if the regulations supported it."
Manna CEO Bobby Healy with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (Photo by Enterprise Ireland)Delivery drivers
Mr Healy said the service is undeniably going to put delivery drivers out of business, but he does not see this as a negative thing.
"It's an awful, underpaid job. It's not a good use for a human being. It's a bad use of the roads. It's prone to accidents," he said.
"Apologies to all the delivery drivers out there but we're going to create so many jobs in the community by doubling the size of local small businesses.
"There are better jobs out there that don't involve you going out in the lashings of rain on a Friday or Saturday night, risking your life to try and make a delivery happen in 20 minutes to keep the customer happy, which is next to impossible.
"It's not a good use of young people."
A Manna Aero drone operator loads up essential household and medical supplies for delivery. Image: REUTERS / Alamy Stock PhotoManna is hoping to launch services anywhere where they can access "high-density" suburbs, such as Tallaght, Blanchardstown, Malahide, Dundrum or Rathfarnham.
Users can access the service here.
Manna intends to trial Blanchardstown for six months, with the hopes of expanding into "every large suburb in Ireland" across 2024.
Main images shows Manna Drone CEO Bobby Healy (Photo by Manna Drone)
