# Manna (drone delivery)

> Source: https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/manna_aero
> Updated: 2026-07-31
> Categories: AI Companies, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics
> License: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
> From AI Wiki (https://aiwiki.ai), the free encyclopedia of artificial intelligence. Reuse freely with attribution to "AI Wiki (aiwiki.ai)".

**Manna**, which trades as Manna Aero and Manna Air Delivery, is an Irish autonomous [drone delivery](/wiki/drone_delivery) company founded in Dublin in 2018 by the technology entrepreneur Bobby Healy. It flies electric multirotor aircraft that hover over a customer's garden and lower packages on a tether instead of landing, and it sells the service to food and grocery platforms on a per-flight basis rather than running a marketplace of its own. In June 2026 Manna suspended its Irish delivery operations after a run of local planning refusals, and on 8 July 2026 it named Tulsa, Oklahoma as the base for a United States operations and manufacturing expansion that it says will employ more than 1,000 people within three years.[1][2][13]

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Legal and trading names | Manna Aero, Manna Air Delivery |
| Founded | 2018, Dublin, Ireland; commercial flights from 2019 |
| Founder and CEO | Bobby Healy |
| Executive chairman and president | Kenny Jacobs (from July 2026) |
| Headquarters | Dublin, Ireland (Glasnevin), with manufacturing and flight testing in County Offaly |
| US base | Tulsa, Oklahoma (announced 8 July 2026) |
| Employees | About 170 in early 2026, rising to nearly 200 by June 2026 |
| Total funding | About $110 million, including a $50 million Series B in April 2026 |
| Cumulative deliveries | Nearly 380,000 as of July 2026 (company-reported) |
| Active markets (July 2026) | Dallas-Fort Worth and Tulsa, United States; Espoo, Finland |

## Founder and leadership

Bobby Healy began his career writing video games for Nintendo at 16, founded the airline technology company Eland Technologies and sold it to SITA after twelve years, and then spent roughly fifteen years building CarTrawler, the Dublin car-hire distribution platform, where he also arranged two leveraged buyouts.[33][34] He is frequently described as CarTrawler's founder, but that is inaccurate: CarTrawler was founded in 2004 by the brothers Greg and Niall Turley, out of their family business Argus Car Hire.[35] Healy also co-founded the travel technology venture Meili.[34]

On 7 July 2026, the day before the Tulsa announcement, Manna appointed **Kenny Jacobs** as executive chairman and president, with a brief to drive expansion into the United States, the United Kingdom and other regulated markets.[12] Jacobs had been chief executive of DAA, the Irish state airport operator, until February 2026, and before that was chief marketing officer of Ryanair; he had earlier worked at Tesco and Metro Group.[12] "Manna is one of the most exciting companies coming out of Ireland in a generation," he said on joining.[12]

## Funding

Manna's early rounds are thinly documented. By March 2023 the company had raised more than $40 million, and that month Coca-Cola HBC, through its venture arm, made a strategic investment tied to Manna's entry into the United States.[28] The company announced a $50 million Series B on 1 April 2026, bringing total funding to about $110 million.[10][11]

| Date | Round | Amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| To March 2023 | Cumulative | Over $40 million | Figure reported at the time of the US entry[28] |
| March 2023 | Strategic | Undisclosed | Coca-Cola HBC Ventures, alongside the Texas launch[28] |
| 1 April 2026 | Series B | $50 million (about EUR 43 million) | Co-led by ARK Invest, the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund and Schooner Capital, with Coca-Cola HBC, Molten Ventures and Enterprise Ireland[10][11] |
| Cumulative | | About $110 million | Company figure, April 2026[10][11] |

Alongside the Series B, Manna said it would add 400 roles across Ireland and the United States, taking headcount past 570 from about 170.[10][11] Healy conditioned the Irish share of that on planning: "It will very much depend on our ability to grow in Ireland, how many of those jobs will be in Ireland."[11] Eleven weeks later the Irish hiring plan was shelved.[14]

## Aircraft and technology

Manna designs and builds its own aircraft in Ireland. It is a battery-electric multirotor with eight motor pods and coaxial propulsion, and the company says the redundancy allows controlled flight after multiple propeller failures.[24] The aircraft does not land at the customer: it descends to roughly 15 metres above the delivery point and lowers the package on a tether, the same broad technique used by [Wing](/wiki/wing_aviation) and [Zipline](/wiki/zipline).[1][25]

| Attribute | Value | Source and date |
|---|---|---|
| Configuration | Multirotor, eight motor pods, coaxial propellers | Company, February 2026[24] |
| Payload | Up to 4 kg | Company, February 2026[24] |
| Cruise altitude | About 60 to 70 m (roughly 200 ft) | Company via Wolt, January 2025; company, February 2026[24][25] |
| Cruise speed | Up to 80 km/h | Company via Wolt, January 2025[25] |
| Delivery method | Hovers at about 15 m, lowers package on a tether | Company via Wolt, January 2025[25] |
| Typical delivery time | About 2 minutes 40 seconds average | Company, February 2026[24] |
| Throughput | Up to 8 deliveries per aircraft per hour, sub-60-second turnaround | Company, February 2026[24] |
| Noise | 59 dB in cruise, 68 dB during the delivery phase | Company, February 2026[24] |
| Redundancy | Three flight control computers and sensor sets; automatically deploying parachute | Company, February 2026[24] |
| Weather envelope | Winds to 36 km/h; company claims 97% of conditions | Company, February 2026[24] |

An earlier 2023 description gave a 3.5 kg payload and a cruise speed above 60 km/h, so the specifications have moved with the airframe generation.[28]

### Where the autonomy stops

Manna's aircraft are, in TechCrunch's description, "automated, remotely monitored drones."[1] That qualifier matters. The aircraft fly planned routes without a pilot steering them, but ground operators oversee the flights, which places Manna in the same supervised-autonomous category as most Western delivery operators rather than in unsupervised autonomy.[24] That the supervision is more than nominal is evidenced by the AAIU record below, in which a remote pilot terminated a flight by parachute in May 2024.[22] Manna's own comparison is to self-driving cars rather than to remote-controlled models.[24] The company has not published a remote-supervision ratio, that is, how many aircraft one operator oversees. The contrast with Wing is instructive, because Wing's ratios are on the FAA record. The FAA's finding of no significant impact for Christiansburg, Virginia, issued 17 December 2021, states that Wing was "currently operating in this location with a 1:2 pilot to aircraft ratio" and approves an operations specification amendment to 1:8, which "would allow Wing to have one pilot operate up to eight aircraft in the air when customer demand is high."[37] Separately, the special class airworthiness criteria published for Wing's Hummingbird on 12 January 2024 describe a proposed concept of operations that "may include multiple UA operated by a single pilot, up to a ratio of 20 UA to 1 pilot."[38] Those are two different quantities, an approved operating ratio and a type-certification design target, and Manna has published neither. Manna also declines to describe its detect-and-avoid system, its perception stack, or any machine learning used in routing or landing-site assessment, so this article does not characterise them.

One published incident exposes a fragment of the ground-station stack, though only through the company's own account of it. The AAIU's list records an uncontrolled descent at Balbriggan on 4 June 2023 and nothing more; Manna told Dublin Inquirer that the drone clipped the face of a building because the two-dimensional imagery "which the remote pilot was viewing did not have automatic integration with the [lidar](/wiki/lidar) altitude data which would result in an automatic 3-D image for decision making," and that it made that integration automatic before resuming operations.[22] That is a remote-supervision tooling gap, a [sensor fusion](/wiki/sensor_fusion) problem in what the human was shown rather than a disclosure about the onboard autonomy stack, and it is the closest the public record comes to a concrete architectural detail.

At the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone in November 2024, Manna flew alongside Wing, ANRA Technologies and the Arlington Police Department in shared airspace, with flights digitally deconflicted through an unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM) implementation derived from NASA's framework and tested using the InterUSS Platform's open-source interoperability suite.[31]

## Business model

Manna runs a hybrid delivery-as-a-service model, charging per flight.[1] In Europe it has flown for [DoorDash](/wiki/doordash), Deliveroo and [Uber](/wiki/uber) Eats, and it also signs merchants directly and operates its own consumer app.[1] This is a different posture from [Wing](/wiki/wing_aviation), whose scale now rests on a Walmart relationship, and from Zipline, which built its own end-to-end logistics network and its own aircraft docking infrastructure. Manna is closer to a contract air carrier for other people's demand: it supplies the aircraft, the base and the flight operation, and lets aggregators supply the orders. The advantage is that it does not have to acquire consumers in every market it enters; the exposure is that its volume depends on partners who are simultaneously building or buying competing capability, as DoorDash is with [DoorDash Air](/wiki/doordash_air) and [DoorDash Labs](/wiki/doordash_labs).

Each base is small. Manna says one needs about the space of four parking spots, which is what makes a dense grid of neighbourhood hubs conceivable and also what makes each one a local planning matter.[9] In its April 2026 Series B post the company claimed to be the only air delivery operator globally demonstrating positive unit economics on residential last-mile delivery, a claim it has not substantiated with figures.[10]

## Operations and markets

| Period | Market | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 onward | Moneygall, Oranmore, Balbriggan, Ireland | Early Irish towns used to prove the service[14] |
| From early 2024 | Blanchardstown and Dublin 15, Ireland | Largest Irish market; nearly 90,000 deliveries by June 2026[14] |
| From 2025 | Cork, Ireland | Base at Centre Park Road, near Marina Market[15] |
| From 31 October 2023 | Pecan Square, Northlake, Texas | First US delivery, from the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone; later expanded across Dallas-Fort Worth[29][30] |
| From January 2025 | Espoo (Niittykumpu), Finland | Winter-conditions pilot with the delivery platform Wolt[25] |
| From July 2026 | Tulsa, Oklahoma | First full-scale US metropolitan operation[2] |

Cumulative volume figures are company-reported, unaudited, and inconsistently defined, mixing "flights" with "deliveries":

| Date | Figure | As stated |
|---|---|---|
| October 2023 | 150,000+ | Flights logged in Europe[30] |
| April 2026 | 250,000+ | Regulated commercial flights[10] |
| June 2026 | 300,000+ | Deliveries, over seven years, with 120+ Irish business partners[13][14] |
| July 2026 | Nearly 380,000 | Deliveries worldwide[2] |

## The Irish withdrawal

On 19 June 2026 Manna announced it was ceasing delivery operations in Ireland, describing it as a "strategic pause" rather than a permanent exit.[13][15] Cork and Coolmine stopped immediately; Blanchardstown ran reduced hours, 1pm to 9pm, until 26 June 2026.[16] Nearly 200 staff, almost all Ireland-based, were affected, and the 300 Irish jobs announced in April were shelved.[14][15]

The proximate cause was planning permission, not aviation safety. Three Irish local authorities acted against Manna sites in the space of about fourteen months:

| Authority | Site | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Fingal County Council | Coolmine Industrial Estate, Dublin 15 | Refused retention permission on noise grounds, decision dated 19 May 2026 (planning reference 102570). The council found the noise impact assessment "does not provide sufficient evidence to robustly determine that adverse noise effects associated with the aerial delivery hub can be avoided," that the hub "results in serious noise pollution" and would be "prejudicial to public health," and that permitting it would set an inappropriate precedent. Planners also noted the assessment used 2014 guidelines and did not address the cumulative effect of Manna's two Dublin 15 bases[19][39] |
| Cork City Council | Centre Park Road, Cork | Sent warning letters in April 2026 raising concerns about the operation[15] |
| Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council | Rear of Holy Cross Church, Dundrum | Refused permission for a new delivery hub in mid-June 2026. The council said Manna "failed to demonstrate that the proposed development would not give rise to adverse noise impact or injury to the amenities of property in the area," and that the ecological impact assessment lacked sufficient evaluation of impacts on biodiversity[15][40] |

By Manna's own account, its three planning applications drew objections from 255 individuals.[14] The Dundrum application alone attracted 216 third-party submissions, of which 193 raised noise, 144 privacy and 86 safety, and it was opposed by an official of the adjacent Holy Cross Church, who wrote that "the prospect of a drone take-off during mass is simply unprecedented and disrespectful."[13][40] When the Coolmine retention application was publicised in November 2025, Fingal received more than 90 submissions, the large majority opposed; the Delwood Residents Association, representing a 260-house estate, voted against, and residents complained of persistent overflight noise.[20]

Manna's own diagnosis put the blame a level higher, on the absence of national rules: "the lack of a clear national framework has left the sector reliant on local planning processes and created uncertainty around the infrastructure required to support drone delivery at scale."[13][14] Healy said the decision was forced: "We are not ending operations in Ireland by choice. We simply don't have the planning regulations we need to be able to scale here, and so we must deploy operational growth capital where we can: the USA."[17] He was pointed about the distinction between aviation regulation, which he praised, and land-use planning, which he blamed: "Manna is successful because of the strong regulatory environment and hugely supportive state bodies like Enterprise Ireland, IAA and AirNav."[17] Research, development, manufacturing, flight testing, operations and regulatory functions stay in Glasnevin and County Offaly.[17] Manna says it invested close to EUR 50 million in Ireland since 2019.[15]

Reaction was not uniformly sympathetic. People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy responded, "Good. Don't come back," and TD Ruth Coppinger called the pause "a victory for communities over big tech."[16][21] Healy in turn accused "certain disingenuous commentators with an agenda" of misrepresenting the move as an exit from Ireland.[17]

## United States expansion

Manna's first US delivery was on 31 October 2023, a Halloween promotion serving Pecan Square, a Hillwood community at Northlake near Fort Worth, from within the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone.[29][30] Service ran Fridays to Sundays from local and national retailers, and later expanded across greater Dallas-Fort Worth.[29]

On 8 July 2026 Manna announced Tulsa as its central US operational and manufacturing base.[2][7] The company said the site would generate more than 1,000 jobs over three years across flight operations, manufacturing, maintenance, commercial operations, customer support and administration.[2][3][6] Factory construction was already under way, with manufacturing expected to begin in about a year and the operations team reaching 200 to 300 people within twelve months; Manna was assessing six further US cities, with entry possible by the end of 2027 if Tulsa performed.[1][5] Reporting on the launch says Manna intends to run 40 delivery bases in Tulsa by mid-2027, covering 90 percent of residents, and to fly for DoorDash, McDonald's and Uber Eats.[9]

The 1,000-job figure is a projection tied to an economic-development announcement, not a payroll. It should be read as such: it is Manna's own forecast over three years, restated by Governor Kevin Stitt, and no source located for this article identifies any Oklahoma or Tulsa incentive programme, tax credit or dollar amount attached to it.[3][7][8] Stitt framed the win in sector terms, noting aerospace and aviation is "around a $44 billion industry right now" in Oklahoma, and Lieutenant Governor Matt Pinnell said the administration is "unapologetic about welcoming international investment in the State of Oklahoma."[7]

Two things drew Manna to Tulsa besides geography and cost. The city is a federally designated Tech Hub with more than $250 million in public and private funding behind its autonomous systems cluster, and it hosts SAFE-T, an integrated system that combines airspace surveillance sensors into a single data feed supporting airspace tracking, traffic management and weather monitoring for beyond visual line of sight operations across the Tulsa metro.[6] Manna also intends to build aircraft in the United States rather than import them from Europe, partly in response to US legislative efforts to restrict foreign-made drones.[4]

Healy's account of the timing is explicitly political and should be read as his opinion rather than as analysis. He credited "the Trump administration's and the FAA's policies" with giving the industry a "turbo boost," and said Manna "wouldn't have had any plans to grow in the United States until the environment was ready from a regulatory standpoint."[1] He separately rejected the framing that Manna was relocating, calling it "taking Irish technology to the world."[3]

## Regulatory status

**Ireland and the European Union.** Manna operates in the "specific" category of the EU drone framework.[22] Under Article 3 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/947, operations in that category "shall require an operational authorisation issued by the competent authority," which is a lower bar than the "certified" category, where the aircraft, the operator and where applicable the remote pilot must all be certified.[41] The Irish Aviation Authority's UAS division has described the resulting conditions: flight termination systems, parachutes and sirens are mandated, routes are planned to favour areas where people are sheltered, and an operator must reapply when it expands.[22] In 2021 Manna became the first drone delivery company in Europe to hold a Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC) from the IAA, which lets it self-authorise certain operations.[27] On 18 June 2026, the day before it announced the Irish pause, Manna received a SAIL III operational authorisation from the UK Civil Aviation Authority under the Specific Operations Risk Assessment framework, one of the more advanced UK approvals granted for uncrewed operations, supported by the training organisation Avtrain and reviewed by Marshall as a recognised assessment entity.[26][27]

**United States.** This is the least clear part of Manna's position, and it should not be papered over. Manna is **not** among the operators listed on the FAA's own "Package Delivery by Drone (Part 135)" page, which in its revision of 21 July 2026 named seven companies: Wing Aviation, UPS Flight Forward, Amazon Prime Air, Zipline International, Causey Aviation Unmanned, DroneUp and Drone Express.[32] The FAA states on that page that operators wanting to conduct small package delivery "must use the FAA's existing Part 135 certification process and obtain an exemption or waiver to provide drone package deliveries using BVLOS," so a Part 135 certificate alone does not confer beyond-visual-line-of-sight authority.[32] No source located for this article, including Manna's own announcements and the trade coverage of the Tulsa launch, names the certificate, exemption or waiver under which Manna flies in Texas or will fly in Tulsa, and a search of the Federal Register returns no documents mentioning "Manna Aero" or "Manna Drone."[1][2][3][4][5][32] Manna should therefore not be described as "FAA approved" without that specificity.

The rule that would change the picture is not final. The FAA's proposed Part 108, "Normalizing Unmanned Aircraft Systems Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations" (docket FAA-2025-1908, RIN 2120-AL82), was published as a notice of proposed rulemaking on 7 August 2025 at 90 FR 38212; as of 31 July 2026 the docket contains four documents, all typed "Proposed Rule," and no final rule exists.[36]

## Safety record and incidents

Manna says it has had zero serious injuries or fatalities in seven years of operation.[24] The Irish accident record is small but real. As of February 2025, Manna had reported three accidents to Ireland's Air Accident Investigation Unit against roughly 200,000 deliveries since 2021:[22]

| Date | Location | Cause and outcome |
|---|---|---|
| 14 July 2022 | Tankardstown, Balbriggan | A fatigue fracture of a bolt securing a propeller blade caused separation, severe vibration, motor failure and automatic flight termination. The parachute deployed and the aircraft landed inverted near a public footpath. A man mowing his lawn was struck by a fragment and suffered a small cut to his head, requiring no stitches or hospitalisation. The AAIU made no safety recommendations. Manna revised its bolt-tightening procedure, redesigned the propeller hub with a failsafe and withdrew the affected bolts[23] |
| 4 June 2023 | Balbriggan | Recorded by the AAIU as an "uncontrolled descent by drone." Manna's own account: the drone clipped a building because the two-dimensional imagery shown to the remote pilot was not automatically integrated with lidar altitude data; Manna made the integration automatic before resuming operations[22] |
| 20 May 2024 | Blanchardstown | Recorded by the AAIU as "impact with terrain." Manna's own account: a remote pilot correctly ended the flight by parachute over open ground because the aircraft had insufficient lift, and the contributing technical issue was rectified[22] |

A fourth episode, an August 2024 video showing packages falling freely during delivery, was attributed by Manna to improper packaging rather than equipment failure.[22]

## Criticism and limitations

The sustained criticism has been about noise and overflight rather than crashes. Residents of Dublin 15 described the aircraft in consistent terms: "It's like a tractor going over your head"; "when they hover to deliver ... 15m above the ground, you couldn't speak; it's that loud"; the "whirring of the blade is extremely loud."[21] Dr James Higgins of Cherry Drive argued that Manna's claim that drones are "quieter than cars" is misleading "as cars do not routinely pass over people's roofs at all hours," and that "the distinctive, high-frequency buzzing of these devices is far more disruptive than claimed."[20] Dr Aidan Cahill said the flights had changed the character of his property "to a place of industry."[20] Frequency compounds it: one objector told the Irish Independent they saw "at least" 50 drones every day.[14]

Manna's counter-case was that it engaged extensively, speaking at Fingal County Council meetings, briefing elected representatives and holding public meetings, and that it received one complaint per 500 deliveries, more than 1,000 supportive customer emails, supported 40 local retailers and employed 50 Dublin 15 residents.[15][20][21] Two councils nonetheless found its noise evidence insufficient on its merits.[15][19]

Other constraints are structural. Payload caps the service at 4 kg, which excludes most of a weekly shop. The stated wind limit of 36 km/h is modest for an Atlantic climate. Privacy objections recurred alongside noise in the Dublin 15 campaign.[21] And within the Irish drone industry, the trade body Drone Professionals Ireland objected to Manna's expansion on competition grounds, warning of a de facto monopoly and questioning exclusive operational geozones, a charge the Unmanned Aircraft Association of Ireland rejected on the grounds that "Manna do not have exclusive use of that airspace."[18][22]

## Significance

Manna is a compact test of a claim the drone delivery sector makes often: that regulation, not technology or demand, is the binding constraint. The company kept its aviation approvals throughout, holding an Irish LUC since 2021 and adding a UK SAIL III authorisation in June 2026, and it still could not fly in Ireland, because the constraint was municipal land-use planning over where a base may sit and how much noise it may make.[19][26][27] That is a failure mode most drone coverage, focused on airworthiness and airspace, misses entirely.

The move to Oklahoma is a bet that the same problem is smaller in the United States, made by a company that says it cannot otherwise scale. Whether that is right is unresolved, since the pivotal US rule remains proposed and Manna's own US authorisation is undisclosed.[32][36] What can be said is that the sector's centre of gravity is consolidating into a handful of permissive jurisdictions rather than diffusing steadily. [Amazon](/wiki/amazon) halted its Italian rollout in December 2025 despite successful tests at San Salvo, saying Italy's broader business and regulatory framework did not support its long-term goals.[42] Wing ended its DoorDash partnership in Australia on 16 January 2026 and withdrew after seven years from a country where it had once flown more deliveries than anywhere else.[43] Manna has now grounded its home market.

## See also

- [Drone delivery](/wiki/drone_delivery)
- [Wing Aviation](/wiki/wing_aviation)
- [Zipline](/wiki/zipline)
- [Flytrex](/wiki/flytrex)
- [Amazon Prime Air](/wiki/amazon_prime_air)
- [DoorDash Air](/wiki/doordash_air)
- [Delivery robot](/wiki/delivery_robot)
- [Drone AI](/wiki/drone_ai)

## References

1. "Autonomous drone delivery startup Manna plots major U.S. expansion." TechCrunch, 8 July 2026. https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/08/autonomous-drone-delivery-startup-manna-plots-major-u-s-expansion/
2. "Manna Announces Major US Expansion." Manna (company blog), July 2026. https://www.manna.aero/blog/manna-announces-major-us-expansion
3. "Manna Launches U.S. Drone Delivery Hub in Tulsa." DRONELIFE, 9 July 2026. https://dronelife.com/2026/07/09/manna-us-drone-delivery-tulsa/
4. "Ireland's Manna Air Delivery chooses Tulsa for U.S. headquarters, promising 1,000 new drone jobs." The Drone Girl, 9 July 2026. https://www.thedronegirl.com/2026/07/09/manna-drone-delivery-tulsa-us-launch/
5. "Manna Picks Tulsa as Base for Major US Drone Delivery Expansion." Commercial UAV News, July 2026. https://www.commercialuavnews.com/manna-drone-delivery-tulsa-oklahoma-expansion
6. "Manna Selects Tulsa for Its First Full-Scale U.S. Drone Operation." Tulsa Innovation Labs, 16 July 2026. https://www.tulsainnovationlabs.com/post/manna-selects-tulsa-for-its-first-full-scale-u-s-drone-operation
7. "Ireland-based drone delivery company expands in Tulsa." KTUL, 8 July 2026. https://ktul.com/news/local/ireland-based-drone-delivery-company-expands-in-tulsa-07-08-2026
8. "Ireland's Manna Launches U.S. Drone Delivery Scale-Up In Oklahoma." Oklahoma Department of Commerce, July 2026. https://okcommerce.gov/irelands-manna-launches-u-s-drone-delivery-scale-up-in-oklahoma/
9. "Ireland's Manna Takes Drone Delivery to the U.S. Following $50M Raise." The Vertical, July 2026. https://thevertical.la/funding/irelands-manna-launches-u-s-expansion-following-50m-funding-round/
10. "We've raised $50 million to make air delivery the infrastructure." Manna (company blog), April 2026. https://www.manna.aero/blog/series-b
11. "Manna to create 400 jobs as it announces $50m funding round." The Irish Times, 1 April 2026. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/04/01/manna-to-create-400-jobs-as-it-announces-50m-funding-round/
12. "Former DAA chief Kenny Jacobs joins Manna as executive chairman." The Irish Times, 7 July 2026. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/07/07/former-daa-chief-kenny-jacobs-joins-manna-as-executive-chairman/
13. "Manna ends Irish drone deliveries over planning 'uncertainty'." RTE News, 19 June 2026. https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2026/0619/1579350-manna-drones-ireland/
14. "Manna pauses drone delivery in Ireland over lack of clear policy." Silicon Republic, June 2026. https://www.siliconrepublic.com/business/manna-pauses-drone-delivery-in-ireland-over-lack-of-clear-policy
15. "Manna announces 'strategic pause' that grounds drone deliveries in Ireland." The Irish Times, 19 June 2026. https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2026/06/19/manna-announces-strategic-pause-that-grounds-drone-deliveries-in-ireland/
16. "Drone delivery firm Manna to cease deliveries in Ireland." TheJournal.ie, June 2026. https://www.thejournal.ie/manna-drone-delivery-ireland-paused-7076100-Jun2026/
17. "Manna Air Delivery founder hits back at 'disingenuous commentators' as drones firm ends Ireland ops." Retail Technology Innovation Hub, 21 June 2026. https://retailtechinnovationhub.com/home/2026/6/21/manna-air-delivery-founder-hits-back-at-disingenuous-commentators-as-drones-firm-ends-ireland-ops
18. "Manna halts drone deliveries in Ireland: 'Without clear policy, we cannot scale'." Dronewatch Europe, 19 June 2026. https://www.dronewatch.eu/manna-halts-drone-deliveries-in-ireland-without-clear-policy-we-cannot-scale/
19. "Fingal County Council rejects Dublin 15 Manna drone hub." The Irish Times, 22 May 2026. https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2026/05/22/fingal-county-council-rejects-dublin-15-manna-drone-hub/
20. "Locals oppose Manna Drone delivery hub for Dublin 15." RTE News, 19 November 2025. https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2025/1119/1544743-locals-oppose-manna-drone-delivery-hub-for-dublin-15/
21. "'Peace and quiet': Residents welcome Manna drone 'pause'." The Irish Times, 21 June 2026. https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/dublin/2026/06/21/peace-and-quiet-residents-welcome-manna-drone-pause/
22. "Amid plans for food delivery drones to spread across Dublin, some worry about safety." Dublin Inquirer, 19 February 2025. https://www.dublininquirer.com/2025/02/19/amid-plans-for-food-delivery-drones-to-spread-across-dublin-some-worry-about-safety/
23. "Man injured by fallen drone propeller while mowing lawn, investigators say." RTE News, 8 November 2024. https://www.rte.ie/news/dublin/2024/1108/1479951-drone-injury-dublin/
24. "Not your hobby drone: the advanced technology behind Manna Aero air delivery." sUAS News, February 2026. https://www.suasnews.com/2026/02/not-your-hobby-drone-the-advanced-technology-behind-manna-aero-air-delivery/
25. "Wolt and Manna team up for drone delivery pilot in southern Finland." Unmanned Airspace, 31 January 2025. https://www.unmannedairspace.info/uncategorized/wolt-and-manna-team-up-for-drone-delivery-pilot-in-southern-finland/
26. "Manna Secures SAIL III Operational Authorisation from UK Civil Aviation Authority." sUAS News, June 2026. https://www.suasnews.com/2026/06/manna-secures-sail-iii-operational-authorisation-from-uk-civil-aviation-authority/
27. "Manna becomes first drone delivery company to be awarded SAIL III authorisation from UK CAA." Unmanned Airspace, June 2026. https://www.unmannedairspace.info/uncategorized/manna-becomes-first-drone-delivery-company-to-be-awarded-sail-iii-authorisation-from-uk-caa/
28. "Manna enters US drone delivery market with Coca-Cola HBC investment." DroneDJ, 16 March 2023. https://dronedj.com/2023/03/16/manna-drone-delivery-us-texas/
29. "Manna Drone Delivery kicks off US ops with trick-or-treating." DroneDJ, 1 November 2023. https://dronedj.com/2023/11/01/manna-drone-delivery-us-texas-2/
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32. "Package Delivery by Drone (Part 135)." Federal Aviation Administration, page last updated 21 July 2026 (read via Internet Archive capture). https://www.faa.gov/uas/advanced_operations/package_delivery_drone
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