They may look like something out of a science fiction movie, but they are very real. Amazon has created drones! This new technology will fly packages to their destination, rather than going through the mail, in 30 minutes or less.
Amazon’s new Prime Air system was granted approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in March of 2015.
Rules were set in place when Amazon was able to begin testing these drones outdoors. Rules such as flying drones no higher than 400 feet, no faster than 100 miles per hour and remain within the pilot's line of sight were set in place along with many other safety and maintenance rules. Regardless of the strict rules set in place for testing, Amazon has been able to prepare a full demonstration of how the drones work in just a few months.
Since then, Amazon has come a long way with their Air Prime system. At the end of November, Amazon released an advertisement for the Air Prime drone delivery system. The ad demonstrated a pair of sneakers being delivered to a home by drone. In the same month, Amazon released their new drone design. The quadcopter design still takes off and lands vertically, but unlike the previous design, they made changes to the regular horizontal flight mode to make it more effective. The hybrid design is part helicopter part airplane. It can fly over 15 miles and over 55 miles per hour, according to Amazon.
Each drone is equipped with some form of “sense-and-avoid” technology. This has been Amazon's hardest obstacle to overcome. So far, the plan is that users of Amazon Air Prime will be able to choose a drop off spot in their yards where the drone will leave their package. When a drone is delivering a package, it will scan the area and look for the landing spot before descending, detach the package, then take off again.
While the idea seems to work well so far, it is unlikely that we will be seeing these drones flying in cities any time soon. The current design and drop off method works better in rural and suburban areas of the nation. Amazon is also working on various designs for the drones to function properly in different environments and different weather situations.
Once Amazon is able to perfect the “sense-and-avoid” technology drones will be able to take flight and customers will be able to choose Amazon Air Prime as a delivery option.
