Detroit Aircraft Company

Jon Rimanelli, the CEO of Detroit Aircraft, hopes his company and the unmanned aircraft it is developing can grow to play a big role in Detroitas economy.

DETROIT, MI - FlowerDeliveryExpress CEO Wesley Berry said his company has always been on the cutting edge of technology, ever since his parents started their floral shop in Detroit 68 years ago.

But the company's latest venture - using drones to delivery flowers to people - has been stalled by Federal Aviation Administration regulations that put stringent approval measures on unmanned air traffic.

Berry said an FAA supervisor called him Wednesday, a day after the company sent out a press release announcing its drone-delivery promo, to point him toward federal rules and regulations regarding unmanned aircraft.

“To be honest, I haven’t really read everything yet,” Berry said of the FAA text. “But it sounds like being a good citizen means I couldn't do (drone flower delivery) right now.”

Berry said that is despite his explanation to the FAA that he had not intended for the drone service to be commercial – yet. Berry said his company merely wanted to test the technology and service out free of charge, as he believes it to be an inevitable next step for delivery services anyway.

And a delivery service, Berry certainly has.



"Our name is FlowerDeliveryExpress, but the primary word there is delivery," he said. "If we don't deliver, no one does."

Though it has five brick-and-mortar locations in the Detroit area, Berry’s company, also known as Wesley Berry Flowers, and which does more than $20 million in annual sales, sells more flowers outside of Michigan through deliveries than it does in-state.

"As soon as you hear something about delivery, we’re all over it," Berry said. "We put GPS tracking systems in our vans 10 years ago, before anyone had thought of it.”

Berry said being at the forefront of national flower delivery competition goes hand-in-hand with dwelling on the razor’s edge of technology. In the mid-1990s, FlowerDeliveryExpress quickly staked its claim to the internet delivery business.

“We’re a family business, but we’ve always been on the edge of technology,” Berry said. “When I was little kid, we were the first florist in Detroit to have a teletype.”

Berry had heard of internet sales giant Amazon.com experimenting with drones and saw no reason FlowerDeliveryExpress shouldn't do likewise. While he does not plan to go through with delivering any flowers by drone any time soon, he said he will keep the sign-up for the service live so that the company can have a database of people willing to be part of the company's testing phase for the service, once they're allowed to do so.



At the moment, the company only has one drone in its possession. It cost $7,000 and followed two less-expensive predecessors; one that couldn't handle the weight of a basic flower package and another that was accidentally flown into a wall and smashed.

Berry could not say how many customers he planned to service, had he been able to go through with his promo. He said the company planned to learn as it went.

“When you're doing research you don’t know what you're trying to find out you just try to find out how it unfolds,” he said.

For now, the research will have to remain grounded.

Related: FAA: Metro Detroit flower company's drone delivery promo likely illegal

Related: Detroit Aircraft Company, Michigan lose out as federal government names six test states for drones

David Muller is the business reporter for MLive Media Group in Detroit. Email him at dmuller@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter or Facebook.