No baloney: Oscar Mayer rolls out last-mile WienerDrone deliveries [VIDEO]

Heartburn has never been so convenient.

Carving out a slice of the last-mile delivery market has become a race against time, and companies like Oscar Mayer, which are just getting into the game, are forced to play ketchup. The storied purveyor of hot beef-tubes is on a roll these days, upping the ante with its “WienerDrone,” that’s “going where other hot dogs can’t.”

The deli meats company has not released plans to scale up the program, but with 7-Eleven and Domino’s already in the drone delivery game, Oscar Mayer clearly relishes the competition.

The drone appears to be a custom job, weighing in at 6.5-pounds and has a flight time of around 15 minutes. The WienerDrone, which has a maximum ceiling of 1,200 feet, has a 24-inch-long fuselage and shaped like, well, a hot dog. With those specs, the WienerDrone can fly about a mile without recharging. That’s a whole lot less than other commercial delivery drones, but until they start rolling up with hot dogs, the WienerDrone remains the most advanced drone in the wiener-delivery sub-sector.

For the time being, the WienerDrone’s deliveries will be limited to line-of-sight operations, as per FAA regulations. Drone manufacturers have stepped up their lobbying efforts with the new administration, pushing for deregulation in a sector that PwC estimates could reach US$127 billion.

The company’s website shows the payload as a single wrapped hot dog, but remote customers might find themselves in a pickle when it comes to condiments.

Below, the WienerDronen joins the Oscar Mayer fleet: