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Zipline: the delivery drone with a parachute, and where it has used one
Zipline's Platform 2 Zip weighs 55 pounds, carries 8 pounds, hovers at 300 feet while a tethered droid lowers the package, and deploys a parachute when something goes wrong. It has done that twice over Texas in six weeks. Zipline flies for Walmart in Dallas-Fort Worth and Arkansas, for Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, and has FAA authorizations from North Carolina to Utah, with Seattle in review. This page tracks all of it.
5
FAA authorizations
Kannapolis · Pea Ridge · Salt Lake City · DFW · Seattle (review)
75
Sites authorized in DFW
Up to 20 docks each; 24/7; 400 flights per site per day
75
Sites proposed in Seattle
Up to 500 docks; comment period closed Nov 2, 2025
2
Parachute landings on record
Greenville, TX (Jul 26) · Cypress, TX (Sep 4)
0
Serious injuries
Zipline: 140M autonomous miles, 2.5M deliveries
55 lb
P2 empty weight
63 lb with full 8-lb payload
—
Questions answered
15 generic + 15 specific, due Sept. 15
The aircraft
Platform 2 Zip · from FAA filings and Zipline's safety fact sheet| Aircraft | Zipline P2 Zip, five-propeller electric VTOL with fixed wing; also the legacy P1 (46 lb, catapult-launched, parachute-drop delivery) |
| Empty weight | 55 lb (25 kg) |
| Maximum takeoff weight | 63 lb (28.6 kg) |
| Payload | 8 lb (3.6 kg) |
| Aircraft weight per pound of cargo | 6.9 lb |
| Range | 10-mile service radius; 24 miles dock to dock |
| Cruise | About 47 mph at 330 ft; never exceeds 76 mph (FAA) |
| Delivery method | Hovers at about 300 ft; a tethered droid descends and places the package; about 75 seconds per delivery |
| Hours | 24 hours, 7 days, including holidays (DFW, Pea Ridge); about 95% of flights 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
| Site | Docks at retailers, shopping centers, labs and warehouses; up to 20 docks per site |
| Flights per site | Up to 400 per day |
| Recovery system | Parachute with audible alert; Zipline says 500 safety checks per second, redundant propellers and comms |
| Noise | Delivery hover at about 330 ft, far above Wing (23 ft) and Amazon (13 ft). dBA figures are in Appendix D of the DFW final EA; not yet extracted, asked of Zipline. |
How it compares
| Operator | Aircraft | Empty | Payload | Recovery |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | MK30 | 77.9 lb | 5 lb | None |
| Zipline | P2 Zip | 55 lb | 8 lb | |
| Wing | Hummingbird 7000W-B / 8000-A | 14 lb / 24.3 lb MTOW | 2.3 to 2.7 lb / 5 to 6.6 lb | Light airframe |
Figures from FAA filings and published interviews.
What Zipline has said on the record
Zipline says its fleet has flown more than 140 million autonomous miles and completed more than 2.5 million deliveries since 2016 without a serious injury, and that parachute landings, which it calls paralands, are rare and work as designed (statement to KPRC, Sept. 4, 2026).
Zipline's published safety fact sheet: a Zip that cannot resolve an in-flight problem deploys its parachute, sounds an alert, and a team member is dispatched to recover it. Both Texas descents followed that sequence.
Not yet on the record: the cause of either Texas parachute event. Questions go out Sept. 8.
Where it flies
4 FAA-authorized areas · 1 in review · 2 reported programs · 2 parachute landings Zipline Solid: operating or FAA-approved Hollow: announced or in FAA review Dashed: former site Black ring: incident
Pins are area-level. Zipline's FAA authorizations cover an operating area (1,200 sq mi in Arkansas, 1,675 sq mi in Utah) or a site count within a metro (up to 75 in DFW and Seattle), not addresses. Beachwood, Ohio and the Houston area appear from DroneXL coverage; their FAA authorization pathway is a question for Zipline.
Sites, markets and authorized areas
Click a column to sort| Code | Place↑ | State | Detail | Metro / scope | Status | FAA decision | Filing |
|---|
FAA authorizations
Every environmental review and re-evaluation on the FAA's public list| Metro or area | State | Scope | Aircraft | Flights per day | Status | FAA decision | Filing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kannapolis | NC | 1 nest; 16 communities north of Charlotte | 46-lb P1 | Not capped in summary | FAA-approved | 2022-02-28 | FAA PDF |
| Pea Ridge | AR | 1 nest; about 1,200 sq mi, 12 communities in AR and MO | 46-lb P1; P2 added May 23, 2025 | 20 → 100 (Nov 2023) → 400, 24/7 (Mar 24, 2026) | 2022-07-14 / 2026-03-24 | FAA PDF | |
| South Jordan / Salt Lake City | UT | 1 nest; about 1,675 sq mi, 17 communities | 46-lb P1 | 20 → 100 (Nov 22, 2023) | FAA-approved | 2022-12-23 / 2023-11-22 | FAA PDF |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | TX | Up to 75 sites, up to 20 docks each | 55-lb P2 Zip | 400 per site; 24/7 incl. holidays | 2025-12-23 | FAA PDF | |
| Seattle | WA | Up to 75 sites, up to 500 docks | P2 Zip (63 lb MTOW, 8 lb payload) | 400 per site; 24/7 | In FAA review | In review | FAA PDF |
5 FAA actions covering four states plus Washington in review. Beachwood, Ohio (Cleveland Clinic) and the Houston area do not appear on the FAA's public NEPA list under Zipline's name; they may run under the national programmatic EA signed July 28, 2026. That is question 4 below.
Markets in DroneXL's record
Where the aircraft are confirmed flying, and where they are promised| Place | State | Partner | Status | Since / target | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mesquite and Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs | TX | Walmart | Apr 2025 | Greenville added mid-2025; expanding city by city | DroneXL | |
| Pea Ridge / Northwest Arkansas | AR | Walmart | 2022 | 400 flights/day authorized since Mar 2026 | DroneXL | |
| Beachwood (Cleveland Clinic) | OH | Cleveland Clinic | Aug 2026 | Four aircraft, about 20 prescription deliveries a week, 5-mile radius | DroneXL | |
| Cypress / Houston area | TX | To confirm | By Sept 2026 | Confirmed by Sept 4 parachute landing on Highway 6 | DroneXL | |
| Austin | TX | To confirm | Announced | 2026 | DroneXL | |
| Tampa Bay (BayCare) | FL | BayCare | Announced | Announced July 2026 | Medical deliveries | DroneXL |
| Seattle | WA | To confirm | In FAA review | FAA draft EA Sept 2025 | Up to 75 sites | DroneXL |
4 places confirmed operating in DroneXL coverage · 2 announced · 1 in FAA review. Zipline also flies for Uber Eats and has a stated ambition of one million deliveries a day.
What has come down
US incidents on record · both ended under canopy| Date | Location | Type | What happened | Outcome | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-04 | Cypress, TX (Highway 6) | Parachute landing | P2 Zip deployed its parachute on the way to a pickup and landed in the southbound lanes of Highway 6. Zipline cites a midflight issue; cause undetermined. | No injuries or damage; no calls to police | DroneXL |
| 2026-07-26 | Greenville, TX | Parachute landing | P2 Zip deployed its parachute over a neighborhood and drifted onto a residential street about 3 ft from a parked pickup. Resident heard a pop, watched it descend. | No injuries; recovered under tarp by Walmart staff | DroneXL |
2 rows. 2 rows, six weeks apart, both in Texas, both the system working as published. A parachute landing in a traffic lane is still an aircraft in a traffic lane; the cause of each is question 2 below.
Questions for Zipline
Sent Sept. 8, 2026 · deadline Sept. 15, 2026 · Pending- 01What caused the Greenville (July 26) and Cypress (Sept. 4) parachute deployments, and were they the same failure mode?Pending
- 02How many parachute deployments has the P2 fleet had in US commercial service, and how does Zipline decide where a Zip under canopy comes down over a road or a yard?Pending
- 03The P2 hovers at 300 ft while the droid descends. What happens to the aircraft and the droid if the tether fails or the aircraft loses lift during that 75 seconds?Pending
- 04Under what FAA authorization do the Beachwood, Ohio and Houston-area operations fly? Neither appears on the FAA's public NEPA list under Zipline's name.Pending
- 05How many sites are active in DFW today out of the 75 authorized, and how many aircraft fly from each?Pending
- 06What is the status of the Seattle environmental review, and when does Zipline expect a decision?Pending
- 07The P2 has five propellers. How many can fail before it deploys the parachute rather than flying home, and can it complete a droid retrieval on four?Pending
- 08State the P2's sound level in dBA at 50, 100 and 250 feet in cruise, and at ground level directly under a 300-foot hover during the 75-second droid descent, with the dominant frequency. How does that compare with the P1 and with Wing's and Amazon's aircraft in the same Texas neighborhoods?Pending
- 09After a parachute landing on a highway or in a yard, how fast is a Zipline team on scene, who at the city, the county or the Texas Department of Transportation is notified, and who is responsible for a lane closure while the aircraft is recovered?Pending
- 10How many P2 aircraft and docks are in US service today, how many flights has the P2 fleet completed here, and what is the fleet-wide rate of parachute deployments per 1,000 flights?Pending
- 11The droid descends on a tether from about 300 feet. What happens if the tether jams, snaps or snags a tree or power line, and can a loaded droid fall from height? Has that happened anywhere Zipline flies?Pending
- 12Zipline carries Cleveland Clinic prescriptions in Beachwood. How is a controlled substance secured inside the droid, what happens to the package if a delivery is aborted while the droid is on the tether, and who recovers a droid left on the ground?Pending
- 13What do the P2's and the droid's cameras record over yards and streets, who can view it, how long is it kept, and is any of it shared with police, insurers or partners such as Walmart?Pending
- 14If a P2, a parachuting aircraft, a droid or a package damages property or injures someone, who is liable, under what insurance, and how does a resident file a claim? Was anyone compensated after Greenville or Cypress?Pending
- 15At what wind, gust, rain and temperature limits does Zipline stop flights, and what does a P2 already hovering at 300 feet with the droid deployed do when the limit is crossed? How many overflights a day will a street inside the DFW or Pea Ridge service radius receive at full build-out?Pending
Status
Every operator gets the same fifteen generic questions on the same terms: weight and payload, recovery system, collision behavior, single points of failure, delivery method, drop-zone checks, incident record, who gets the call, sound level, pitch, overflight frequency, cameras and data, liability, weather limits, and an engineer at the public meeting. Plus the specific set at left. Answers are published in full and this page is updated the day they arrive.
Zipline: sent Sept. 8, 2026, deadline Sept. 15, 2026. Result: Pending. 15 generic plus 15 specific questions sent Sept. 8, due Sept. 15.
For your town
The council handout is operator-neutral. The FAA controls the airspace and the certificate; your town controls the site's zoning and permits, and the record it builds by asking.
Council questionsDroneXL coverage
Every row above links to one of theseSep 5, 2026
Zipline drone parachutes onto Highway 6 in Cypress
Aug 31, 2026
Cleveland Clinic flies 20 prescription deliveries a week with four Zipline aircraft
Aug 22, 2026
Amazon pool drop and what Zipline's design does differently
Aug 17, 2026
Uber and Zipline target one million drone deliveries a day
Aug 7, 2026
Cleveland Clinic Zipline deliveries go live
Aug 1, 2026
DOT's BVLOS delay and Zipline's investment
Jul 27, 2026
Zipline Walmart drone parachutes into a Greenville street
Jul 2, 2026
Zipline and BayCare plan Florida medical drone deliveries
Jun 24, 2026
Zipline's Austin push
Primary sources
Every figure on this page traces to one of these- FAA FONSI/ROD, Zipline, Dallas-Fort Worth (up to 75 sites), Dec. 23, 2025
- FAA Written Re-evaluation/ROD, Zipline, Pea Ridge, Arkansas (400 flights/day, 24/7), Mar. 24, 2026
- FAA Draft EA, Zipline, Seattle (up to 75 sites, 500 docks), Sept. 2025
- FAA FONSI/ROD, Zipline, Salt Lake City, Utah, Dec. 23, 2022
- FAA FONSI/ROD, Zipline, Kannapolis, North Carolina, Feb. 28, 2022
- FAA: Public Involvement and Environmental Review for Drone Operations (index)
- Zipline: Inside how Zipline tests and improves safety systems (P2 parachute)
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