amazon to fly your packages to your door!!

[James Brown]

I'll keep the copter
Amazon is building a drone fleet to fly packages to your doorstep - Baltimore Business Journal

[aigel]

Will be interesting how the air space is organized for these things. I always wondered how that would be done for flying cars. I guess we are getting there with unmanned objects.

There was a pizza delivery earlier already ...

[Schumi]

From my time growing up in Missouri... I can only imagine the potential for entertainment sought from this delivery system with the addition of a shotgun, a lawn chain, and a cold case of beer.


In direct comment to this announcement... I feel like we as human beings should have better things to be working on.

[911_Dude]

Drones are the next big thing. We are at the tip of an exponential growth pattern.

Now, how to make money on it...

[GH85Carrera]

It might work in parts of the country that don't have regular winds. I can't imagine the liabillity of one of thse things smashing into a car or building when a gust of wind catches it. How well will they work in a rain storm or snow storm?

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out.

[URY914]

I'm thinking a GoPro on one at the nude beach.

[sc_rufctr]

Stupid idea... Because it will never work properly. Just imagine the crashed drones on people roofs.

Also. Do we really need a faster way to get more junk?

[Mark Henry]

Originally Posted by Schumi

From my time growing up in Missouri... I can only imagine the potential for entertainment sought from this delivery system with the addition of a shotgun, a lawn chain, and a cold case of beer.


In direct comment to this announcement... I feel like we as human beings should have better things to be working on.

Even simpler, fake address and baseball bat equals free pizza.

[Seahawk]

I actually work in the commercial UAS industry; am actually somewhat of an expert, speak at conferences, advise industry clients, fly for profit, etc.

Amazon, Fed-Ex and many others are pushing the FAA for more access to the national airspace, to essentially, "file and fly". Recently the FAA divided UAS into a few categories, the small UAS defined as 55lbs and below that must fly 400Ft agl and below.

It is felt that the rules for flying small UAS in the National airspace (airframe certification, training, capabilities, etc.) will be defined and proscribed in 2015. That is why Amazon is pushing so hard, along with other industry folks: Unmanned large aircraft for package hauling.

I have been in the UAS industry for over 12 years, first in the military and now commercially: The capabilities of small UAS are astounding, both fixed and rotary wing. The fly with much greater accuracy than their manned counterparts, and I have a lot of hours flying.

There are many industries out there looking to replace manned aerial platforms with UAS...and they will.

Here is a good website for lots and lots of info: Home - Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International

[Mark Henry]

This will be just be another reason why I hate cities.
The good news is I live to far out of town to ever be annoyed by these things.

[cstreit]

SO uh...

How can Domino's/Amazon/FedEx be sure that the drone delivers the package to ME? Does it knock on the door? Possess facial recognition that only fly's within reach when it sees me looking up?

[GH85Carrera]

Don't bet on it. They will be buzzing around everywhere. Farmers will be using them to see their fields. Ranchers will use them to monitor livestock.

[Seahawk]

The whole pizza and package delivery idea is, at least for a number of years, a pub stunt to draw attention to the FAA's inaction on large unmanned aircraft.

[patz]

Moving target's. They will be down in 5 minutes. The whole city will be lit up with tracers and shrapnel.

[Mark Henry]

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by patz

Moving target's. They will be down in 5 minutes. The whole city will be lit up with tracers and shrapnel.

Funny.

But you are wrong.

Small, electric UAS are virtually undetectable above 300 feet agl. Small, fixed wing UAS with very sophisticated avionics can fly for over two hours.

Boo.

Beyond pizza and Amazon, they will revolutionize traditional methods of data collection in the commercial sector, much greener and more efficiently than manned aircraft.

It just is, as Erich Fried, an Austrian poet, first wrote, what it is.

[JavaBrewer]

Time to start planning...

[Mark Henry]

I bet it won't have that good of range in a Canadian winter.

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Don't bet on it. They will be buzzing around everywhere. Farmers will be using them to see their fields. Ranchers will use them to monitor livestock.

Farmers are too cheap and the farms here are too small for that.

Originally Posted by JavaBrewer

Time to start planning...

Police state first...oh wait... you already have that well in the works....
Good luck

[craigster59]

[cstreit]

Seriously... How will a drone get a package to the intended recipient? The only thing I can think of is a smartphone app with GPS and some sort of local communication to the drone?