A couple of years ago Amazon announced their Prime Air program that would basically see the company use drones to make future deliveries. This would no doubt help save time especially if the deliveries are within the area that the drone is in. Unfortunately due to numerous restrictions and concerns, the FAA announced that they would be banning drone deliveries.
Now the good news is that if drone deliveries is something you’d really like to see happen, federal regulators have recently given Amazon the greenlight to start testing their drones. The FAA is now allowing Amazon to test the flight of their drones outdoors, a request Amazon made last year, although there is a bunch of rules that Amazon has to follow, such as flying below 400 feet and operating only during daylight hours.
The drones will also need to be operated by a pilot who is certified a private manned aircraft, meaning that Amazon will need to start hiring specialists if their drone delivery system is to be made a reality. However Amazon’s initial plan was to have the drones fly autonomously but since the FAA is still saying no to that, manned drones will have to do for now.
That being said it will probably still be years before Amazon can legally begin their drone delivery system for real, but in the meantime we reckon it’s at least a step closer towards that direction and something to look forward to in the future.