Home food delivery by drone now available in a second Triangle community

Southern Durham is now the second place in the Triangle where residents can order food and have it delivered to their homes from the air.

Drone-maker Flytrex has begun delivering meals from Streets at Southpoint mall, though for now the menu is limited to Charleys Philly Steaks.

Flytrex introduced drone deliveries to the Triangle in Holly Springs a year ago, starting with one restaurant, It’s Just Wings. It later expanded to include ice cream and Jersey Mike’s Subs.

The Federal Aviation Administration allows Flytrex and its operator, North Carolina-based Causey Aviation, to fly two nautical miles from its base. (A nautical mile, measured in the air or on water, is slightly longer than a mile on land.) Residents can go to the Flytrex website, www.flytrex.com/, to see which neighborhoods the drones can reach from the mall.

People within the delivery territory must use the Flytrex app to order food and drinks weighing up to 6.6 pounds. The drones follow a pre-programmed route, cruising at an altitude of 230 feet before descending to about 80 feet and lowering a bag on a tether to the customer’s yard or apartment commons area.

Flytrex says the average flight time is three minutes.

Customers don’t pay extra for drone deliveries. The company says it wants to make deliveries so inexpensive that restaurants and retailers can easily absorb the cost.

Durham becomes the fifth place where Flytrex offers drone deliveries. The other four are Holly Springs, Fayetteville and Raeford in North Carolina and Granbury, Texas, west of Fort Worth. Flytrex is seeking certification from the FAA to make drone deliveries nationwide.