Posted on 03/26/2016 11:55:24 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Flirtey makes first urban drone delivery in FAA test, beating Amazon to the punch
by Alan Boyle on March 25, 2016 at 5:07 pm
Flirtey’s hexacopter hovers over Nevada during a drone delivery test. (Credit: Flirtey)
A startup named Flirtey says it’s executed the first FAA-approved urban drone delivery in the United States, in a test that could blaze a trail for Amazon and other companies that want to do the same thing.
The GPS-guided drop-off to an unoccupied house took place on March 10 in Hawthorne, Nev. The package of supplies, including bottled water, emergency food supply and a first-aid kit, was lowered by a rope to the house’s front porch from a hovering hexacopter. A drone pilot and several visual observers were on standby in case something went wrong, but they weren’t needed, the company said.
“Conducting the first drone delivery in an urban setting is a major achievement, taking us closer to the day that drones make regular deliveries to your front doorstep,” Flirtey CEO Matt Sweeny said today in a news release about the test.
/snip
A box containing food, water and a first-aid kit is lowered from Flirtey’s drone. (Credit: Flirtey)
The box is lowered to an unoccupied house during this month’s test. (Credit: Flirtey)
(Excerpt) Read more at geekwire.com ...
The most clever VTOL I think I have ever seen, and electrics make it happen. Notice the doors that uncover the front two lift fans and the rears rotate 90 degrees. It's speed advantage being a flying wing / blended wing body would be a huge benefit. It needs a way to deal with "deliverables" but I'd rather not go their.
All good and well, until someone who doesn’t like you decides to deliver an unwanted package to your house.
Can you say BOOM? No drones over my tent, thank you!
Currently we have the driver parking, getting out, bringing the package to the door, and going back.
Visualize a truck with a drone on top. As the truck approaches the house, the drone is passed the package by an internal mechanism, the drone zips the package to the door, drops it off, and flies back to the truck (which has not necessarily even stopped). It then re-attaches itself to the roof landing point, which is also the charging station.
You shouldn’t have posted that, that might be patentable. Add a driver-less pre-programmed truck and the various delivery companies stocks would be cash cows and their revenues would go through the moon. Ditto that if we get breakthrough batteries and the stop and go of the trucks is a regen mode. Even if the are CNG powered that would add to the revenue as was well.
Above is a couple words that jumped out at me in one of the sentences. Even though the actual delivery was a test delivery and not an actually delivery to people you've just got to ask yourself the satirical question: "What possibly could go wrong with drone delivery".
Oh please. Neither Amazon nor anybody else will deliver packages in any commercially viable way for at least a century, if ever.
But.. but..but It is all part of Bernie’s plan to get trucks off the roads. Do I need a sarcasm tag?
So my safe, grand piano, and anvil drone delivery service is out of the question?
How about a drone that delivers drones?
that makes sense. It’s just hard to imagine a sky filled with tens of thousands of them, I guess.
I suppose we can have a mothership drone sending out drones which deliver packages and come back.
That is what I was getting at in the previous post. Possibly the truck being a launching pad for numerous drones that fly back and forth from truck to home and back again where they are reloaded with the next delivery.
Yes, seen something like that. Wonder why “they” are testing standard drone platforms that are clearly dangerous for day-to-day use. The example you provide is clearly much more safe.
Post 20. . .hmmmmm. . . .
Not sure how this will work. So many front doors are covered with porches, no way a drone can put the package in a secure location not visible from the Street. Theft will go sky high.
I’ve got to concur that liability from stuff like fingers being chopped off is going to be the biggest concern in using drones, but my gut feeling is that if we get to the point of using drones they will be delivering packages like the one shown and that is by lowing the package by a rope instead.
My personal gut feelings is Amazon investment in promoting the use of drones is just alot of hype to keep investors invested in their company, and probably will never be extensively used much if used at all. I see Amazon like I see politicians that can make alot of promises about the future but in reality it is mostly all hype.
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