…USA elderly couple makes history with over 1,000 drone deliveries to their Virginia home

By March this year, drone logistics services provider Wing had completed its 300,000^th flight.

And those flights were all over the world too, including in Queensland, Australia and Texas in the USA. The Wing aircraft braved all manner of weather elements; and even faced some sustained protest from disgruntled avian stakeholders at one stage.

Remarkably, in all the places that Wing has set left its footprint in terms of drone deliveries, at no time did their drones make journeys to one place as they did to the home of the Sensmeiers in Christiansburg, Virginia, USA.

According to the service provider, Susie Sensmeier became one of the first customers to join the Wing drone programme at its launch in 2019; where she signed to receive deliveries from partners Wing was working with.

Those partners comprised Walgreens, Sugar Magnolia, Montgomery Counter Public Schools, Gran Rodeo restaurant, Girl Scouts Virginia Skyline, Gigi’s Cupcakes and Brugh Coffee company.

“Susie (84) was hooked,” Wing says.

“Four years later, Susie and her (83-year-old) husband Paul have had over 1,200 orders delivered to their front yard in Christiansburg, Virginia via Wing’s drone delivery service. We believe this sets a world record.

Susie and Paul are certainly early adopters, but given their advanced ages, their profile goes against the grain from the typical user of cutting-edge technology.

“We’ve had the most drone deliveries of any people in the world,” says Susie.

“We’re proud of it because we love drone delivery, and it’s become part of our daily habit.”

Since 2019, Susie and Paul have ordered over one hundred unique items, which paint a picture of their everyday life: playing cards, coloured pencils, toothbrushes, toothpaste, sunscreen, cold medicine, COVID-19 test kits, and lots of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.

Some of their most-ordered items include:

• 371 hot meals from a local Mexican restaurant
• 210 blueberry muffins from a local bakery
• 107 bottles of orange juice
• 93 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from a local chapter.

“That’s quite an assortment of goods we’ve gotten in our house that we didn’t have to drive out to get,” says Paul.

The average delivery time from the moment they pressed order was 12 minutes and 14 seconds.

And as Wing adds, drone delivery arrived on the Sensmeiers’ doorstep at the right time. Susie has vision issues and therefore can no longer drive. Paul does drive, but drone delivery has helped them skip unnecessary trips. The couple even said the service has helped them stay in their home longer than they may otherwise have. The elderly couple are planning to move into an assisted living facility soon; and they say they will miss ordering stuff and getting it brough by a drone.

“A lot of new technologies spark people’s imagination because they are novel and do something remarkable,” Wing says.

“Having headache medicine flown through the air by a tiny plane and lowered in your front yard is no different.

“But the fact that an 84-year-old couple is currently using this service more than anyone else in the world points to something different about drone delivery. As Susie and Paul have shown, it’s a technology that may start off as a novelty – but very quickly becomes just another part of everyday life.”