Zipline Now Making Quieter Deliveries with Acoustics Breakthrough

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, October 27, 2026 -Zipline, the world's largest drone delivery service, now has a quieter fleet, thanks to a breakthrough from its engineering team: sound-optimized dynamic flying. In an industry first, Zipline's autonomous drones now use onboard sound modeling to optimize in real time for quiet flying. This upgrade, combined with other hardware and software improvements, means Zipline has cut overall sound exposure per flight by 68% and made flights 24% quieter at peak volume compared to Zipline's 2025 fleet, based on internal modeling.

"Zipline is building a future with less noise, less traffic, and less pollution," said Keenan Wyrobek, Zipline Co-Founder and CTO. "We want people to love having Zipline available, not just tolerate it, and that starts with making it the quietest way to get a delivery. We've spent years pushing the limits of engineering to make that true."

While most drones must continuously run all their motors in order to stay in the air, Zipline drones have a fundamentally different design, featuring a fixed wing that allows them to fly like birds and planes, turning off all but one motor once they reach cruising speed and altitude. With sound-optimized dynamic flying, Zipline drones now transition to on-wing flight more efficiently while producing less noise, using wind and gravity to accelerate and decelerate, similar to birds taking advantage of air currents.

Instead of static, pre-planned trajectories, Zipline's dynamic flying optimizes for reduced sound by balancing wind, altitude, and speed. As a Zipline drone takes off, it uses its weather sensors to measure the real-time wind conditions. It then combines that data with a custom sound model to determine the quietest way to transition to on-wing flight, such as dipping its nose to gain speed like a bike going downhill, or popping upwards to quietly slow down at the end of a flight.

Now deployed fleetwide, sound-optimized dynamic flying reduces flight times too. Zipline flight times are 53 seconds shorter on average thanks to faster transitions in and out of on-wing flight, spending roughly 50% longer traveling "on-wing". This improved efficiency reduces the energy Zipline drones use per flight by 21%.

This upgrade builds on years of Zipline aeroacoustic engineering focused on making its drones blend into the background of everyday life, including patented ultra-quiet propellers, and the two-part architecture which keeps the drone roughly 330ft above the ground during delivery, compared to an average of 32ft for other delivery drone services.

Sound-optimized dynamic flying now enables what comes next: even higher-altitude flights and deliveries, and more sophisticated maneuvers that make Zipline even quieter.

About Zipline

Zipline is the world's largest drone delivery service. Zipline operates on multiple continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 15 seconds, and serves hundreds of locally-owned businesses and national retailers as well as more than 5,000 hospitals and health facilities. With nearly 150 million commercial autonomous miles flown to date, Zipline is transforming access to emergency products, healthcare, consumer products, and food. Our customers rely on Zipline to save lives, save them time, increase economic opportunity, and provide logistics at scale. For more information, visit Zipline.com