Amazon wants airship warehouses to base its drones

I think they may have spare time to dream right now; I just read an article about them making floating fulfillment centers. Who knows?
 
I read they are looking into blimps to hold a bunch of merchandise. The article said that the warehouse would hold at 45,000 ft. I don't know any blimp that can fly at 45k. And they're gonna need more than some gas and a small prop to get thousands of pounds of merchandise up to 45k.

This is probably the most absurd and imprcatical aviation-related idea that I have ever heard.
 
I don't understand how patents like this get issued. Every fedex and UPS jet is a flying warehouse. The last thing I want is a friggin drone flying over me at a stadium or beach to deliver someone their new hat or whatever.
 
did anyone nitice this? "The drones would initially fall to earth relying largely on gravity, and their motors would fire up for the final stretch." ... how the F$&$ am i supposed to see those thingls falling out of sky?
 
I am not picturing a quad copter zipping into a crowded football stadium with a six pack of Coke.
 
PaulS said:
I don't understand how patents like this get issued. Every fedex and UPS jet is a flying warehouse. The last thing I want is a friggin drone flying over me at a stadium or beach to deliver someone their new hat or whatever.
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yea right? this is gonna be us(humans):
upload_2016-12-30_15-14-41.png
drones dropping off sodas and fries.
 
John221us said:
I am not picturing a quad copter zipping into a crowded football stadium with a six pack of Coke.
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6 pack doesnt fit well with coke.... i think those two words should end with bud light
 
WannFly said:
6 pack doesnt fit well with coke.... i think those two words should end with bud light
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Right, but I am really not picturing how they could comply with liquor laws. Please hold hour ID in front of the camera...
 
Even if they get this beast off the ground ;) they still have to get clearance through Class A for each delivery, with separate squawk. Good luck with that.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk
 
Methinks some folks don't realize the two purposes of the patent trolling game.

One is the original purpose, protecting an idea from being stolen before someone has a chance to implement it. That use has fallen to dubious value, in a world where a small one person shop will be fighting a phalanx of corporate lawyers for a decade or even see a penny from the infringer.

The second use is for marketing. Amazon knows you'll all see the absurd patent and be talking about them, which strengthens their brand, gives many an impression they're trying real hard to deliver FAST, and generally creates buzz.

Pretty much, they just trolled everyone into talking about them. They're not stupid. They know the value of that.

They're already incredibly fast at delivering all sorts of goods that would take a week or two to show up, or wouldn't even be viable to ship direct to someone, twenty years ago. Pretending they're going to launch giant warehouses in the sky, is just marketing.

The mannah from heaven jokes nearly write themselves. I can picture the marketing person now... "Go file a bunch of patents that make it seem like we will be raining down everything everyone ever wanted from the sky! Go!" LOL
 
denverpilot said:
Methinks some folks don't realize the two purposes of the patent trolling game.

One is the original purpose, protecting an idea from being stolen before someone has a chance to implement it. That use has fallen to dubious value, in a world where a small one person shop will be fighting a phalanx of corporate lawyers for a decade or even see a penny from the infringer.

The second use is for marketing. Amazon knows you'll all see the absurd patent and be talking about them, which strengthens their brand, gives many an impression they're trying real hard to deliver FAST, and generally creates buzz.

Pretty much, they just trolled everyone into talking about them. They're not stupid. They know the value of that.

They're already incredibly fast at delivering all sorts of goods that would take a week or two to show up, or wouldn't even be viable to ship direct to someone, twenty years ago. Pretending they're going to launch giant warehouses in the sky, is just marketing.

The mannah from heaven jokes nearly write themselves. I can picture the marketing person now... "Go file a bunch of patents that make it seem like we will be raining down everything everyone ever wanted from the sky! Go!" LOL
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I think you broke the code
 
This whole scheme sounds like it was inspired by alien Motherships and the flying saucers they dispatched to Earth.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I think you broke the code
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LOL... see: Anything run by Elon Musk for other examples. :)

Tech gives people warm fuzzies... well those who don't work in tech, anyway.

I'm thinking the security implications of the command and control system for a fleet of drones large enough to deliver things sizeable enough to bother delivering, is a pretty daunting task.

You know what the real world implementation will use balloons for? Radio "towers".

Oh sure, the drones will be mostly autonomous, but re-routes, drones with mechanical problems, and all sorts of other scenarios need a real time data link... and Bezos isn't going to pay for cellular backhaul.

They're going to need RF line-of-sight to control a fleet of drones.

If the balloons can also poop out spare drones and some limited quantities of mannah from heaven, the marketing gets the permit done and past the morons at each city council, and then the antennas get a free ride.

Imagine how fast the permits and meetings go, if they say they can go get Starbucks and deliver it with a drone to the masses. Because you know, stopping at one on every other street corner is "hard".

One might have to put down one's protest sign about how unfair all the companies are giving jobs to robots, in order to take the cup from the drone and tap the "tip barista" button on their smartphone. Haha.

Life is hard living in the first world. I mean, we all need toothpaste delivered in 30 minutes or less from the sky, right? And nothing about that idea could possibly be wrong, dangerous, or stupid...

Know why it'll all be safe? ADS-B. That's right. ADS-B will make all dreams come true. I read it in a nice marketing slick.

ADS-B plus airships carrying mannah from heaven, and drones everywhere.

I can smell the NexGen already! Hahaha.
 
It seems that the clowns that work for Amazon have drunk enough of the Jim jones koolaid that they think the rest of the world has no need for the airspace above and that they are leading the way to a better future for us all.
 
Acrodustertoo said:
It seems that the clowns that work for Amazon have drunk enough of the Jim jones koolaid that they think the rest of the world has no need for the airspace above and that they are leading the way to a better future for us all.
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I suspect it's more like the days of the "dot com" boom. Company has too much money and people and they're tasked with stuff that's ultimately silly.

We had whole engineering groups working on stupid crap that would never see the light of say back when the Internet boom was on, and nobody thought the merry go round would ever stop.

Musical chairs being what it is in that sort of scenario, guess who was laid off first when the first round of "we want a return on our investments sooner than we thought" came down from investors who were slowly taking over the Board? Yup.

A tip for young engineers: Work on things that you know will make or save the company money. Or if you're enjoying working on silly stuff like this or even worse pie in the sky pipe-dreams, make sure you know you're the first out the door when fiscal problems start, and be ready to abandon ship.
 
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