Wing wants to open about seven Walmart drone delivery hubs across the St. Louis area together instead of testing a single store first. Wing spokeswoman Jessie Poole-Strang told the St. Louis Business Journal, in a report published Tuesday, that the approach would bring the service to tens of thousands of households at once.
The next city to hear the pitch is Manchester, Missouri. Wing presents to the Board of Aldermen on Monday, November 2, and holds a public open house at City Hall on Wednesday, November 4. Kirkwood, the first St. Louis-area city to take up a filed Wing permit, let it die without a motion on October 15, after its own planners had recommended approval.
Kirkwood’s own planning report puts Wing’s target at 12 Walmart stores in the metro, and Wing’s St. Louis web page lists none of them.
Wing Plans a Seven-Nest Launch With 12 St. Louis Walmarts in Play
Wing plans to open about seven St. Louis nests together, and its applicant told Kirkwood planners it is pursuing 12 Walmart stores in the metro. Kirkwood’s proposed nest held up to 18 drones behind a fence in a corner of the store parking lot.
Poole-Strang described the same strategy in August, when she told Spectrum News that “when we enter a new market, we really want to target multiple sites.” She said then that Wing was still finalizing its initial sites with Walmart, the step that starts permitting. The Business Journal reported that Walmart and Wing have approached six cities so far, according to meeting minutes: St. Charles, Wentzville, Kirkwood, Maplewood, Manchester and Glen Carbon, Illinois. Kirkwood’s September 2 Planning and Zoning subcommittee report names a seventh store, in High Ridge.
If each named city has one store in play, that leaves at least five of the 12 unaccounted for. DroneXL searched the meeting agendas of about 20 other St. Louis-area cities, on both sides of the river, and found no Wing or Walmart drone item. Arnold, Chesterfield, O’Fallon, Missouri, St. Peters and the St. Louis County Planning Commission could not be searched.
High Ridge Is the Only Approval Reported, and No County Agenda Shows It
Kirkwood’s September 2 report is the only source for Wing’s one St. Louis approval, saying “the only approval so far is at the High Ridge store,” and no 2026 Jefferson County agenda that DroneXL found mentions drones in unincorporated High Ridge.
A site approval handled by county staff would not reach an agenda, so a permit may exist that has not been published.
The other six named cities are at every stage short of a yes. Wentzville gave Bill 4914, its drone delivery zoning ordinance, a first reading on October 21, and its Board of Aldermen meets next on November 4. Maplewood’s Plan and Zoning Commission recorded on September 2 that a formal Wing application “has not yet been received but is expected,” and its October 5 agenda carried no drone item.
St. Charles heard a presentation from Wing and Walmart at its August 18 City Council meeting, referred by Mayor Dan Borgmeyer, and no permit or ordinance has appeared on a council or zoning agenda since. In Glen Carbon, the Building and Development Committee’s July 28 agenda listed a “review and recommendation on use of drones at Walmart.” Nothing on drones has reached the Village Board.
Manchester Hears Wing Twice in Three Days With No Vote Scheduled
Wing presents to Manchester’s Board of Aldermen at 7 p.m. on November 2 at the Manchester Justice Center, then hosts an open house at 6 p.m. on November 4 at City Hall. The city’s October 24 notice says the service would operate “out of the Manchester Walmart store.”
The city says no formal board action or vote will take place on November 2, and its officials have already seen the drones work. Mayor Ben Toben told aldermen on August 17 that he had attended a meeting that day with city staff, Walmart and Alphabet “where they demonstrated drone deliveries,” according to the meeting minutes.
The notice’s figures do not all match Wing’s own. Manchester describes drones that reach up to 65 mph and operate within a 6- to 7-mile radius of the store. Wing’s St. Louis page says its aircraft fly at up to 60 mph and travel up to 12 miles (19 kilometers) round trip, which works out to the six-mile radius in Kirkwood’s report.
No FAA Comment Period Is Required for St. Louis Under the National Finding
The FAA’s public list of drone delivery environmental reviews has no Wing document for Missouri or Illinois. The FAA signed a national environmental finding on July 28, 2026. Under it, a Wing site that fits its limits can be cleared through an internal checklist, with no public comment period.
Wing’s Atlanta and Houston decisions, both signed in August, went through metro-specific assessments with public drafts. St. Louis will not get one unless Wing or the FAA chooses that route, and the national finding itself is under challenge: Illinois is one of 15 states suing the FAA to throw it out. Missouri is not.
A city cannot regulate the flights, only the nest on the ground, as DroneXL’s guide to how drone delivery approval works explains. That leaves aldermen and zoning commissions as the only public venue for Wing’s St. Louis plan.
DroneXL’s Take
Wing is planning St. Louis as one network and asking for it one parking lot at a time. It says it is still finalizing sites with Walmart, and a company aiming to open seven nests at once should show cities the list before asking any of them to vote.
I support the national finding. A full environmental study for every identical parking lot was never going to tell anyone much. But those metro studies had one side effect worth keeping. They put hub addresses on paper, which is why DroneXL’s tracker can list Amazon’s hubs by street address. St. Louis gets no such document. The public record holds a count of 12 stores in a Kirkwood staff report and the names of seven communities.
A Manchester resident at the November 4 open house will be asked about one nest at one Walmart. The aircraft over that resident’s yard could come from any nest within six miles, and the resident will not see that map unless Wing brings it. Manchester’s aldermen should ask Wing for the full list of 12 on November 2, and Wing should hand it over.
Sources: St. Louis Business Journal via MSN, City of Manchester, October 24 notice, Manchester Board of Aldermen minutes, August 17, City of Kirkwood, October 15 council packet (September 2 subcommittee report), Maplewood Plan and Zoning Commission, October 5 packet (September 2 minutes), City of St. Charles council minutes, August 18, Village of Glen Carbon, July 28 committee agenda, Spectrum News, Wing St. Louis page, FAA Public Involvement and Environmental Review for Drone Operations
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
