Tracker › Drone Delivery › Aircraft compared
← All operatorsOperators Amazon Prime AirWingZipline Aircraft compared More operators are added as they meet the inclusion test
DLVRThe aircraft, side by side
Four delivery drones, one table: what flies over your yard and how loud it is
Every figure here comes from an FAA filing: the agency's December 2025 national table of Part 135 delivery aircraft, each operator's environmental assessment, and, for Amazon, the microphone measurements the FAA's consultant published. Where a filing does not state a number, the table says so and the question has been put to the operator.
Specifications
FAA figures. Wing's 8000-A is 24.3 lb with a 6.6 lb payload per the FAA, heavier than most press accounts| Amazon Prime Air MK30 | Wing Hummingbird 7000W-B | Wing Hummingbird 8000-A | Zipline P2 Zip | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Hybrid: 6 propellers, vertical takeoff, wing-borne cruise | Hybrid: 12 lift propellers, 4 pull propellers, fixed wing | Hybrid: 8 lift propellers, 4 pull propellers, fixed wing | Hybrid: 4 lift propellers, 1 push propeller, fixed wing |
| Maximum takeoff weight | 83.2 lb | 14 lb (under 15 with payload) | 24.3 lb (under 25 with payload) | 63 lb |
| Empty weight | 77.9 lb | about 11.7 lb (derived) | about 17.7 lb (derived) | 55 lb |
| Payload | 5 lb | 2.3 to 2.7 lb | 5 to 6.6 lb | 8 lb |
| Aircraft per pound of cargo | 15.6 lb per lb of cargo | about 5 lb per lb of cargo | about 2.7 to 3.5 lb per lb of cargo | 6.9 lb per lb of cargo |
| Cruise altitude | 180 to 377 ft AGL | 150 to 300 ft AGL | 150 to 300 ft AGL | 150 to 400 ft AGL; about 330 ft typical |
| Cruise speed | 58 kt (67 mph); 73 mph max | 51 kt (59 mph), single set speed | 51 kt (59 mph) | 41 kt (47 mph); 76 mph max |
| Range | 7.5 mi radius, 174 sq mi per hub | About 6 mi from each nest | About 6 mi from each nest | 10 mi service radius; 24 mi dock to dock |
| How the package reaches the ground | Descends to 13 ft, opens payload doors, drops the package. Never lands off-site. | Descends to a 23 ft hover and lowers the package on a retractable tether. Never lands off-site. | Same profile as the 7000W-B: 23 ft hover, retractable tether. | Hovers at about 330 ft and lowers a droid on a tether; the droid steers itself onto the target and sets the package down. Never lands off-site. |
| Hover height and time at the home | 13 ft, about 4 s at the drop; about 60 s below cruise altitude in total | 23 ft, about 30 s | 23 ft, about 30 s | About 330 ft, about 75 s |
| Recovery system | None No parachute or ballistic recovery system in any filing. | No parachute in filings Safety case rests on a light airframe and tethered delivery. | No parachute in filings | Deployed over Greenville, TX (Jul 26, 2026) and Cypress, TX (Sep 4, 2026); no injuries. |
| Redundancy | Amazon: no single point of failure can cause loss of control; backup flight controller; detect-and-avoid. Motor-out margin not stated in filings. | 12 lift rotors plus 4 pull propellers; motor-out margin not stated in filings. Asked in questions 4 and Wing-specific 7. | 8 lift rotors plus 4 pull propellers; motor-out margin not stated. | Zipline: redundant propellers, redundant communications, 500 safety checks a second. How many of five propellers can fail is Zipline-specific question 7. |
| Pitch | Not stated in filings. Asked in question 10. | Residents describe a high whine. Not quantified in filings. Asked in question 10. | Unknown. Whether the heavier aircraft is louder or lower in pitch than the 7000W-B is Wing-specific question 8. | Not stated in filings. Asked in question 10. |
Empty weights marked "derived" are the FAA maximum takeoff weight minus the stated payload, because Wing's filings give only the loaded figure.
Noise, as filed with the FAA
Only Amazon's numbers are public in extractable form so far. The others are in appendices and in the operators' inboxesThree metrics appear in these filings and they are not interchangeable. Lmax is the loudest instant, what a person hears as "how loud." SEL folds the whole pass into one second, so it runs 7 to 12 dB above Lmax for an aircraft that takes several seconds to go by. DNL is the year-averaged daily exposure the FAA uses for its 65 dB significance test; it is low for any single drone because it averages over 24 hours. Pitch, which decides how annoying a sound is at a given level, appears in none of them.
Amazon Prime Air · MK30
Measured, published
| Cruise pass, 200 ft, full load | SEL 63.7 dBA |
| Cruise pass, 345 ft, empty | SEL 60.9 dBA |
| Hover and takeoff, max level at 20 ft | about 82 dBA (Lmax) |
| Hover and takeoff, max level at 75 ft | about 70 dBA (Lmax) |
| Hover and takeoff, max level at 195 ft | about 65 dBA (Lmax) |
| Hover and takeoff, max level at 372 ft | about 63 dBA (Lmax) |
| FAA comparison | Overflight at 50 ft about 71 dB; leaf blower at 50 ft 73 to 77 dB (FAA Florida decision) |
| Hub, 1,000 deliveries a day | DNL 65 dB reaches 100 ft; DNL 50 dB reaches 750 ft |
| Delivery point, 5 a day | DNL 52 dB at 16 ft; 46 dB at 50 ft; 41 dB at 100 ft |
Wing · Hummingbird 7000W-B
Filed, not yet extracted
| FAA setback at 400 flights a day | Nest at least 65 ft from a home; 120 ft near airports (Class B and D). Autoloader flight paths 45 ft; 80 ft near airports |
| dBA at distance | In Appendix D of the DFW and Central Florida filings; table not yet extracted. Also asked of Wing (question 9) |
| Certification | The 7000W-A has its own FAA Part 36 noise certification standard (faa.gov/media/31201) |
Wing · Hummingbird 8000-A
Filed, not yet extracted
| Fleet share | 20 to 30% of Wing's DFW and Central Florida fleets (FAA filings) |
| dBA at distance | In Appendix D; not yet extracted. Asked of Wing (question 9) |
Zipline · P2 Zip
Filed, not yet extracted
| dBA at distance | In Appendix D of the DFW final EA; table not yet extracted. Asked of Zipline (question 9) |
| Hover height | Delivery hover at about 330 ft puts the aircraft far higher than Wing (23 ft) or Amazon (13 ft) during the loudest phase; the tethered droid, not the aircraft, comes to the yard |
The FAA's national programmatic EA reports that the loudest cruise pass among all Part 135 delivery aircraft measured to date is about 78 dB SEL, without naming the aircraft. Amazon's MK30 cruise pass is 63.7 dB SEL. The 78 dB aircraft is one of the others on the FAA's list, and identifying it is part of the Wing and Zipline extraction.
Sources
Every cell above traces to one of theseAmazon Prime Air · MK30
Wing · Hummingbird 7000W-B
Wing · Hummingbird 8000-A
Corrections, tips and reports
Read by a person, checked before it changes a row · anonymous if you wantSend something to the deskTakes a minute · no account
How we handle what you send
Straight to the editor. Nothing publishes on a tip alone.
- 01We confirm firstA document, a second source or our own reporting, before a row changes or a story runs.
- 02You are credited if you wantOr not at all. Anonymous means we never see who you are.
- 03Corrections are loggedEvery fix shows in the row's source and update date, so the record stays honest.
- 04Spam does not reach usA bot check and a few quiet traps keep the inbox to real people.
Comments
Public discussion. For corrections and tips, including anonymous ones, use the form aboveComments load when you scroll here.