Ordered and delivered within an hour: Amazon has started the regular delivery service by drone. The group sees the approval of the aviation authorities as a mere formality.
If an Amazon drone comes flying… The load can weigh up to 2.5 kilograms. (Source: Amazon)
- In the small town of Lockeford, California, Amazon is launching deliveries from the air, by drone.
- Parcels with a maximum weight of 2.5 kilograms should reach their destination within an hour of being ordered.
- Amazon first announced drone delivery in 2013.
Whether it’s going for a walk, transporting objects weighing more than 50 kilograms, cleaning solar cells or spectacular flights over a volcano: the development of drones is progressing unstoppably. Amazon knows that too. The online mail order company has been working on the plan to deliver orders by drone since 2013. Amazon Prime Air is now going into test operation, according to a company statement on Monday.
Amazon chose the small town of Lockeford, California, as the location for the test operation. According to Amazon, the town has a long aviation tradition and can look forward to the first deliveries of goods from the air starting in autumn.
“It is relatively easy to transport cargo with a single drone over a short distance, on sight. But coordinating a drone network over a larger area is a much more complicated matter,” says the company’s statement.
The specially developed cargo drones can transport packages with a maximum weight of 2.5 kilograms over a distance of 24 kilometers. In the air, they should be able to independently avoid obstacles.
Amazon isn’t alone in planning to use drones to deliver goods to homes. Alphabet spin-off Wing has been delivering to cities by drone since 2017. More than 100,000 deliveries were recorded in the Australian city of Logan in 2021.
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