FAA certificate gets Amazon one (tiny) step closer to drone deliveries
Walker Sands’ ‘2015 Future of Retail Study‘ surveyed 1,400 U.S. consumers and found that two-thirds expect to have their online purchases flown in by drone within the next five years. Furthermore, nearly half (48%) said they would be prepared to pay at least $5 per order for such as service and 79% said drone deliveries would drive them to shop more with a retailer.
A couple of years ago, Amazon made public its designs on drone delivery but they were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who drove the retailer to go overseas to test their intended delivery method.
However, this week the FAA finally issued a experimental airworthiness certificate to Amazon Logistics Inc for an unmanned aircraft design that the company intends to use for “research and development and crew training”.
Those dreaming of drone deliveries need not get too excited. The FAA’s certificate comes with a lot of restrictions including a flight height limitation of 400 feet, daylight operation only in “visual meteorological conditions” and the drone must remain within sight of the pilot and observer. Flights can only take place over private, rural land. Furthermore, the drone operator must have at least a private pilot’s certificate and have been medically certified.
According to Reuters, “As part of Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos’ plan to deliver packages under a program dubbed “Prime Air,” the company is developing drones that fly at speeds of 50 miles per hour (80 kph), operate autonomously and sense and avoid objects”, which, if the length of time it took the FAA to get to this point is any indication of the speed of progress, won’t tie in with Amazon’s hope of providing drone deliveries within the next five years.
