Google aims to launch drone delivery by 2017

David Vos, the leader of Google's Project Wing, announced today that Google planned to have its drone delivery service operational in 2017, Reuters reported.

The announcement was made yesterday at an air traffic convention in Washington.

Project Wing - which falls under the blanket of Google's home for experimental projects, Google X - was officially announced in August 2014, though it had been secretly under implementation for two years prior to that.

Many companies other than Google also believe drone delivery was the way of the future, most notably Amazon, though Walmart is said to be considering joining the fray.

Vos is on the task force set up to advice the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Department of Transportation (DoT) on how to create a registration system for drones.

The FAA and DoT are pushing for registration of all drones over a certain with the US government, an important step toward clearing the regulatory hurdles in the way of commercial drones.

"We're pretty much on a campaign here, working with the FAA, working with the small UAV community and the aviation community at large, to move things along," Vos said to the crowd at the convention, in regards to the task force.

"We think we can accomplish a lot in the next three, six, 12 months. And we're hoping to get some strong support to make this happen."

In a YouTube video at the time of the announcement of Project Wing in August 2014 Google showed a field test of its most viable drone prototype in Australia.

The prototype flown in Australia, 1.5 metres (4.9 feet) wide and 0.8 metres (2.6 feet) tall, shared the same four-propeller quad copter design as popular consumer drones, however according to the company, consumers could expect to see new vehicle types and shapes as the project unfolded.

Inside the United States, Project Wing has conducted testing with NASA.

According to Vos, a drone registry, which the Obama administration hoped to establish by 20 December, would be a first step towards a system using wireless telecommunications and internet technology as also cellphone applications to identify drones and keep UAV away from aircraft and controlled airspace.