Subscribe Us

Amazon's new Prime Air drone offers 30-minute deliveries

 

Amazon has unveiled its newest delivery drone that will soon be dropping packages from 12 feet in the air in two U.S. cities

 

  • Amazon's newest Prime Air drone will begin air-dropping packages in two U.S. cities in Texas and California by the end of this year
  • Dubbed MK27-2, the drone can fly 50mph and will drop small items that fit inside a shoebox-sized box from 12 feet above ground
  • Jeff Bezos first announced drone delivery in 2013, but the service only made a single delivery three years after that
  • The autonomous craft is about five-and-a-half feet in diameter, weighs 80 pounds and can only carry packages that weight less than five pounds 

Amazon has unveiled its newest delivery drone that will soon be dropping packages from 12 feet in the air in two U.S. cities.

The retail giant has long wanted to solve the last leg of package delivery, especially since it launched Amazon Prime's Two-Day delivery offering in 2005. Jeff Bezos first announced drone delivery in 2013, but the service only made a single delivery three years after that.

The drone, dubbed MK27-2, will start making deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, by the end of 2022. 

The drone , dubbed MK27-2, will start making deliveries in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, by the end of 2022


The autonomous craft is about five-and-a-half feet in diameter, weighs 80 pounds and can only carry packages that weight less than five pounds. Any deliveries must fit inside one box that's about the size of a shoe box.

The retail giant has long wanted to solve the last leg of package delivery, especially since it launched Amazon Prime's Two-Day delivery offering in 2005
The autonomous craft is about five-and-a-half feet in diameter, weighs 80 pounds and can only carry packages that weight less than five pounds. Above: the Amazon drone goes through wind tunnel testing

'If the drone encounters another aircraft when it’s flying, it’ll fly around that other aircraft. If, when it gets to its delivery location, your dog runs underneath the drone, we won’t deliver the package,' Calsee Hendrickson, who leads product and program management for the Prime Air drone program, told CNBC.

Once the package is loaded inside, the drone takes off vertically using six propellers. According to the business outlet, the craft then rotates into a forward position until it reaches the delivery location; at that point, it descends vertically, scans the area to make sure it's clear and drops the box from 12 feet above the ground.  

'We know our customers will only feel comfortable receiving drone deliveries if they know the system is safe and reliable,' Amazon said in a blog post. 'Our drones can encounter new, unexpected situations and still make safe decisions—autonomously and safely.

'We’ve created a sophisticated and industry-leading sense-and-avoid system that will allow our drones to operate at greater distances while safely and reliably avoiding other aircraft, people, pets, and obstacles.'

According to Amazon, thousands of items in its vast inventory can be delivered by drone. The effort passed another milestone when the Federal Aviation Administration gave the company approval to operate the drones in August 2020.

'We’ve made sure that all of those products are both capable of being okay when they are delivered, and our packaging, which is displayed behind me as well, is a special packaging that ensures that the integrity of the product is still intact after the delivery,' Hendrickson told CNBC.

The retail giant also unveiled the next generation delivery drone, known as MK30, which will be lighter and smaller than the previous model, and will reduce the machine's perceived noise by 25 percent - which Amazon calls a 'game-changer.' that machine won't come into service until 2024.

Amazon selected Lockeford as one of the starting locations for Prime Air because it was the hometown of aviation pioneer Weldon B. Cooke.

Cooke built and flew early planes in the 1900s and Amazon hopes to add another 'innovation milestone' to the town. 



According to Amazon, thousands of items in its vast inventory can be delivered by drone. Above: An employee of Amazon works on the drone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Post a Comment

0 Comments

CLOSE ADS


CLOSE ADS