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.
Published September 2026. Live figures update with each capture.
| Date | Aircraft | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 1, 2023 | 0 | Reconstructed |
| Jan 1, 2024 | 20 | Reconstructed |
| Jan 1, 2025 | 174 | Reconstructed |
| Jan 1, 2026 | 931 | Reconstructed |
| Mar 20, 2026 | 1,431 | Captured |
| Apr 29, 2026 | 1,528 | Captured |
| May 11, 2026 | 1,548 | Captured |
| Jun 30, 2026 | 2,213 | Captured |
| Jul 31, 2026 | 2,313 | Captured |
| Aug 31, 2026 | 2,751 | Captured |
| Sep 30, 2026 | 2,973 | Captured |
| Oct 7, 2026 | 3,009 | Captured |
- 2,853aircraft when the study closed, September 27, 2026
- 406 of 429aircraft in the public file before the Uber news
- 3,009aircraft on October 7, 2026, the latest capture
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.
Sources and method
Source: FAA Releasable Aircraft Database. History since March 20, 2026. Every FAA publication captured since August 28, 2026. Truncated captures are excluded. The solid line is the count in each capture; the dashed line before it is reconstructed from the certificate dates of aircraft still registered, a floor.
Valuation: Forbes, Apr 28, 2023 (reported); Zipline, Jan 21, 2026; Bloomberg, Sep 16, 2026 (reported talks, not closed). Analysis: Terminal provided by the Marble Institute of Technology.
After September 27, 2026, each point is the same count, made the study’s way, from that day’s capture. Every figure on this page is listed on Sources.