Drone delivery firm Manna launches pilot programme in Cork 

Drone delivery firm Manna has announced a new pilot programme to take place in Cork City, in partnership with local businesses, in order to explore the demand for their services with an eye to a gradual rollout of their system.

The company will begin demonstration flights at Marina Market starting today. They will also be asking customers who are interested to register their Eircode on their website after which they will pick between 50 and 100 who can order deliveries from the initial selection of vendors.

Independent retailers at Marina Market and elsewhere including the likes of La Cantina, as well as Frankie’s as well as Burritos & Blues have all said they will participate in this initial exploration phase with Manna.

The company said that if demand is strong, it estimates that up to 50 direct jobs could be created in the area as part of a full service rollout.

Manna will also look to partner with community groups offering meal delivery services, to explore drone delivery of supplementary meal items. This will include supplying fresh meals and providing support to organisations such as Meals on Wheels.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Bobby Healy, founder and chief executive of Manna, said they’ve been planning this rollout in Cork for about a year with much of that spent working with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) and AirNav on the best approach to take as well as talking to local businesses.

"We're doing a very gradual approach here. We want to educate everyone first before we would call it really a rollout. We start demo flights at Marina Market. People can come down and talk to us about it,” he said.

"We don't want anyone to think that we're rushing and we're going full steam ahead. We're gonna talk to everyone, everyone can come see us, ask their questions, voice their concerns, if there's any, and then we go from there.” 

When it comes to deploying their drones in an area, Mr Healy said there are often hear two concerns from people - noise and privacy.

However, he said there are systems in place to address both of those.

“In Cork, the drones will be flying at a height of 80 metres. When they first launched in Dublin they were limited to 45 metres. We also introduced a brand new propulsion system, motors and propellers, and I can tell you, noise is not an issue now,” he said.

“When we deliver to your house, we're at 14 metres. You'll definitely hear us there but we're there for 25 seconds.” When it comes to privacy, he said their drones are autonomous and have a camera as part of their safety system but nothing is recorded.

"Right as we get down to 20 metres, we switch the camera on to make sure there's nobody underneath the aircraft. No recording, no images, no video, no sound, very low resolution,” 

he said.

Controversy erupted last week over a decision made by the IAA to introduce new temporary measures that will significantly limit drone pilots and enthusiasts from flying over large parts of the city without providing two days' notice.

The measures were enacted to facilitate the entry of a Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone operator, such as Manna, who are not required to give two days' notice. On Tuesday, the Unmanned Aircraft Association of Ireland (UAAI) met with Manna to discuss the issue of the new airspace restrictions.

During the discussions, the UAAI said Manna put forward a solution that would allow all operators to be facilitated in the same way as they had been before.

It said the proposal received support from AirNav Ireland. "Engagement with the IAA is now required for this solution to be approved,” UAAI said.