Marble Institute of Technology

Research summary

Zipline's fleet, day by day

Zipline is private and publishes no fleet count. The FAA registry does, if you keep every version of it.

Zipline's visible fleet doubled in six months to 2,853, about 80% of visible U.S. delivery drones.

Before its Uber deal, Zipline registered aircraft faster than its usual pace. 406 of the 429 aircraft it added in those weeks were in the public FAA file before the announcement, so the build-out was visible before the news.

The registry does not lead every time. The full study tests every comparable Zipline event against a rule set before testing, and the Uber deal was the one clear hit. The registry shows capacity, not flights, and small drones register in a system that is not public.

Chart: Zipline's visible fleet and its funding-round valuations rose together from 2024. The fleet line is reconstructed before March 2026 and observed daily after.
From the full study. Source: FAA Releasable Aircraft Database; valuations as reported.

Read the full study

The full study, with every event, the rule and the sources, is available on request.

Request the full study (opens in a new tab)

Request the sample pack (opens in a new tab)