Nearly a decade after Jeff Bezos first announced drone delivery, Amazon says it’s finally ready to start dropping packages from the air — literally.
The newest drone model will drop packages 12 feet into the air.
“If the drone encounters another aircraft while flying, it will fly around that other aircraft. If, when it gets to the delivery location, your dog runs under the drone, we’re not going to deliver the package,” said Calsey Hendrickson, who leads product and program management for the Prime Air drone program.
Hendrickson gave CNBC a first look at the drone, the MK27-2, on Thursday. It said it will begin making deliveries in Lockford, California, and College Station, Texas, by the end of 2022. Some residents of the small, rural town of Lockford have raised privacy and safety concerns. Amazon insists drones are safe.
“We like to talk about the drone as being autonomously safe, meaning it has the power to make the decision. He saw something that had a heat signature underneath the drone and was able to not deliver a package and go back to station .. But the drones have an operator in command that monitors the entire airspace,” Hendrickson said.
The drone is about five and a half feet in diameter and weighs 80 pounds, according to Hendrickson. It can only carry packages weighing less than five kilograms, and supplies must fit in one box the size of a shoe box.
An Amazon drone operator loads a single shoebox-sized box into his MK27-2 Prime Air drone
Amazon
The box is loaded from the back and secured inside, then the drone takes off vertically, much like a helicopter, using six propellers. Once in the air, it rotates into a forward position and the hexagon around the drone serves as its wings. Hendrickson said he was flying about 50 mph. Once at the delivery location, it descends vertically, scans the area to make sure it’s clear, then drops the box from hovering 12 meters above the ground.
The drone can fly 12 kilometers in both directions and is fully autonomous. The drone needs enough clearance below it to drop the box.
Amazon says thousands of items are eligible for drone delivery, a small percentage of the vast assortment available on the market.
“We’ve made sure that all of these products are in good condition when they’re delivered, and our packaging, which is also shown behind me, is special packaging that ensures that the integrity of the product remains intact after delivery,” Hendrickson said.
Prime Air has been slow to develop since it began testing in 2013. It made a single drone delivery in 2016, but has reportedly faced major setbacks since then, such as high turnover and crashes.
It reached a key milestone in August 2020, when the Federal Aviation Administration gave Amazon approval to operate the drones.
On Thursday, Amazon also announced the next model, the MK30, which will be released in 2024.
Amazon says the MK30 is smaller, will be 25% quieter than the MK27-2, and will be able to fly in light rain.
Amazon’s David Carbone, vice president of Prime Air, unveiled its next drone model, the MK30, in Westborough, Massachusetts on November 10, 2022.
Erin Black
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct package drop height and to clarify that customers do not need to be at home for a drone delivery.