Amazon Wins Patent for Flying Warehouse to Deliver Parcels via Drones
The U.S. e-commerce giant, Amazon has been awarded a patent for launching a giant flying warehouse that would acts as a launch pad for drones to deliver items within minutes. The patent reveals plans for setting up an “Airborne Fulfillment Center” (AFC) such as an Airship or Blimp, floating at an altitude of
around 45,000 and stocked with lots of products especially in area where the demand for certain items is expected to be high. When a customer places an order, a drone or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will fly down and deliver the package. The patent claims that this would require little or no power because the drone would be gliding down rather than having to take off and land.
The patent also describes using smaller airships, or shuttles, to replenish the AFC with inventory, drones, supplies and fuel. The drones would be able to communicate with each other via a mesh network to give information such as weather and route. UAVs could also recharge on the airship.
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