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Internet giant Alphabet Inc., the new holding company for Google, expects to begin delivering packages to consumers via drones in 2017, the executive in charge of its drone effort said Nov. 2.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. applied to U.S. regulators for permission to test drones for home delivery, curbside pickup and checking warehouse inventories, a sign it plans to go head-to-head with Amazon in using drones to fill and deliver online orders.

Rwanda may become the base for a network of so-called droneports for remote-controlled aircraft to deliver urgent cargo to remote parts of the tiny country known as the Land of a Thousand Hills.

Workhorse Group Inc. said it won Federal Aviation Administration approval to test its unmanned aircraft system called HorseFly, which is designed to fly to and from the company’s electric delivery vehicle.

Several other countries such as Canada and France have been faster to permit commercial drone flights than the United States, a government study found.

In what was being called "a Kitty Hawk moment," a secluded health clinic in rural Virginia received medicine from the first government-approved drone delivery July 17.

The Federal Aviation Administration is issuing permits for the commercial use of drones at a rate of about 250 a month as it tries to meet the growing demand for unmanned aircraft while it develops rules for their use.

The Colorado Department of Transportation conducted a three-day evaluation of a helium-filled blimp to monitor traffic.

The first legal delivery of a package by a drone is expected to take place next month by a research group led by Virginia Tech, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.