Google expects to begin delivering packages to customers using drones sometime in 2017, an executive said on Monday. "Our goal is to have commercial business up and running in 2017," David Vos, the project lead for Google's Project Wing, told an audience at an air traffic control convention outside Washington.

Google has been working on drone delivery efforts for at least a year and disclosed the project in August 2014 when it released a video showing prototype efforts in Australia.

Google is facing potential competition from Amazon and Wal-Mart, both of which have said they're working on similar technology.