Amazon is trying it . UPS has considered it . Ice fishermen in Minnesota used it to get beer . Yelp created one just for burritos . Google is the latest company to branch out into delivery by drone , it revealed Thursday . The technology giant started running its first test flights earlier this month as part of Project Wing , a secretive , 2-year-old program exploring drone delivery . A team of Google engineers and experts on unmanned aerial vehicles , called UAVs , safely carried out more than 30 test flights this month , transporting an assortment of goods including chocolate bars , a water bottle , radios , a first aid kit , dog treats and a cattle vaccine one kilometer . It conducted the tests on a farm in Queensland , Australia , to avoid the FAA 's strict guidelines that limit the use of UAVs in the United States . Google developed its own prototype hybrid drone with fixed wings and four rotors for the tests . It is 1.5 meters wide and can soar as high as 60 meters , far enough up to dodge houses and trees . Drones have the potential to revolutionize how goods are transported . In typical Google fashion , the company is presenting Project Wing as a way to make the world better , rather than as a tool to boost its bottom line ; an early goal of the program was to deliver defibrillators to heart attack victims . Now Google imagines using the vehicles to deliver medicine and help the environment . UAVs can rise above traffic congestion , make a beeline for remote locations where roads are shoddy or nonexistent , and potentially cut down on pollution by replacing cars or trucks . In emergencies where regular routes are blocked , a drone could quickly ferry water and medicine to people in need . The Atlantic 's Alexis Madrigal got an inside look at the previously undisclosed program , which was headed by MIT roboticist Nick Roy and Google [ x ] lab director Astro Teller . `` What excited us from the beginning was that if the right thing could find anybody just in the moment that they need it , the world might be a radically better place , '' Teller told Madrigal . Actual drone delivery , at least by Google , is still years off . The project 's next goal is to determine if delivery by UAV is even viable . Then it will focus on safety features to handle potential problems like midair collisions and crashes . It also wants to reduce the noise made by its drones and fine tune navigation features to address issues like privacy . Project Wing is part of Google [ x ] , the company 's lab dedicated to making big technical leaps , like Google Glass and self-driving cars . The department is led by Google co-founder Sergey Brin . This is not the first time Google has taken to the skies . It purchased a drone company , Titan Aerospace , for a reported $ 60 million in April . It is also working on Project Loon , which is testing the use of high-altitude balloons to bring Internet connections to remote areas . It also works with Makani , a company developing airborne wind turbines that hover between 80 and 350 meters in the air . The undersea drones revealing the ocean 's secrets . Hollywood to feds : Let us use drones .
Google 's Project Wing has flown more than 30 test flights with drones . The company is experimenting using drones to deliver goods like first aid kits . The project is part of its secretive Google [ x ] lab . Any potential drone delivery service is still years away for the company .