Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer stood outside City Hall one morning this week and looked up as a drone lowered a blue and yellow cardboard sack to the ground on a wire.
As the autonomous aircraft retracted the wire and ascended back into the sky, the mayor collected the package.
“You have just witnessed the first official drone delivery in the City of Orlando,” he said, pulling out a bag of Lindt chocolate truffles and a box of Swiss Miss hot cocoa packets. “Today is the start of a new era.”
The mock delivery, which transported the mayor’s sweets from one corner of the plaza outside City Hall to another, was meant to showcase the new technology.
But soon some Orlandonians could see drones making similar stops in their neighborhoods. A new partnership with drone delivery company Wing and retail giant Walmart aims to have a residential drone delivery service take to the Central Florida airways by early 2026.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer opens a drone grocery delivery outside City Hall on Tuesday, December 17, 2025 (Michael Cuglietta/Orlando Sentinel)
Wing, a Google affiliate based in California, plans to bring drone deliveries to 100 Walmart stores across the Southeast, including to Orlando and Tampa, next year.
The company is still working with Walmart to decide all the stores that will get the service, but one in Clermont is already approved. Earlier this month, Clermont city officials approved a variance for Walmart to create a drone hub at its store on John Lake Road off U.S. 27.
Orlando leaders said in an email that drone deliveries could improve the quality of life in the city by offering residents a convenient way to get groceries as well as reduce traffic and lower fuel emissions.
The Wing drones, which are already making deliveries in Texas and Georgia, are restricted to packages weighing less than 2.5 pounds. They are often used to deliver over-the-counter medications or overlooked grocery items, according to Jessie Poole-Strang, communications manager for Wing.
“Ground beef, tomatoes, limes. It’s those things that you forget. Like, ‘Shoot, I need a protein for dinner. Or I need another tomato’,” she said. “Lunchables are very popular.”
Initially, there will be no charge for the service. Deliveries will be restricted to single-family homes that are within a six-mile radius of a participating Walmart.
To get a package, residents will need to download Wing’s free app and have a picnic-blanket-sized space in their yard for the drone to make its drop. Deliveries should arrive about 30 minutes after the order is submitted.
Wing Flight Operations Support Coordinator, Joshua Lorenzo Simonetti, works with a Wing drone at a demonstration outside City Hall on Tuesday, December 16, 2025. (Michael Cuglietta/Orlando Sentinel)
The drones travel up to 60 miles per hour, at an altitude of 150-to-200 feet. They are autonomous, but there is a pilot monitoring the flights who can step in if needed.
“They’re watching for things like weather. They’re watching for things like aircraft in the area. But they are not one-to-one joy sticking,” Poole-Strang said.
Once it is determined what stores besides the Clermont one will participate in the service, Wing will build docking stations in the parking lots, which will be used to stage deliveries and charge the aircraft.
Each store will have up to 18 drones. A Wing employee will attach the order to the drone’s wire, which is then retracted so the package is snug against the aircraft when it takes to the sky.
The drone maps its own route and will even identify where on the property to place the package.
Wing Flight Operations Support Coordinator, Joshua Lorenzo Simonetti, works with a Wing drone at a demonstration outside City Hall on Tuesday, December 16, 2025. (Michael Cuglietta/Orlando Sentinel)
“It’s designed in a way that we can deliver eggs without cracking,” Poole-Strang said.
Until deliveries start, the company is working to get the word out by hosting demonstrations like the one at City Hall.
“We’re trying to get some excitement built up. See the support from cities. We have a lot of support from other places, so now we’re testing it out in Florida,” said Eric Vaughan, local policy manager for Wing who was at Tuesday’s demonstration.
While Dyer is excited to see the technology come to Orlando, he cautioned that it will likely take time for people to get used to it.
“We need to educate people so that when they see that drone coming into their neighborhood they understand that it’s something that’s safe and useful for them,” Dyer said.