Amazon’s Plan for Flying Warehouses

Via Core77

We talk about storing data in the cloud, but Amazon is looking into storing physical goods up there. The company has filed a patent for an “Airborne fulfillment center” utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles for item delivery:” In essence, the scheme is to have warehouses suspended from blimps, floating at 45,000 feet (which is higher than/out of the way of commercial flight paths) over metropolitan areas and loaded up with delivery drones.

When a customer orders something, it’s attached to a drone, then dropped out of the sky.

The UAV may be deployed from the AFC and descend under the forces of gravity toward a delivery location using little to no power. Only as the UAV approaches earth does it need to fully engage the UAV motors to maintain flight and complete delivery of the item.
After dropping off the package, the drone doesn’t fight its way back up to 45,000 feet; Amazon reckons this would not be “an efficient use of power,” so instead the drone flies off to a “replenishment shuttle.” This would be a smaller airship “that is configured to transport inbound items (e.g., UAVs, inventory, workers, supplies, fuel) to the AFC and retrieve outbound items (e.g., overstock inventory, transshipments, workers, waste) from the AFC.”

As crazy as this plan sounds, the patent filing makes a lot of good points as to why it should be implemented. The airship isn’t tethered to a fixed location so can float around as needed or to avoid inclement weather. The company also envisions stocking them up over “temporal events” like football games, where they’d be loaded up with relevant product (sports paraphernalia, food products). And with the airship system, “items may be delivered within minutes of a user placing an order.”


Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 38,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — New Products 11/15/2024 Featuring Adafruit bq25185 USB / DC / Solar Charger with 3.3V Buck Board! (Video)

Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: A New Arduino MicroPython Package Manager, How-Tos and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

Adafruit IoT Monthly — The 2024 Recap Issue!

Maker Business – Adafruit Daily — Apple to build another chip at TSMC Arizona

Electronics – Adafruit Daily — SMT Tip – Stop moving around!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !


1 Comment

  1. Here is a fun math problem: A fulfillment center is placed at 45,000 feet above sea level directly above New York City. NYC has a general altitude of 33 feet above sea level. If a 1 pound sphere were to fall out of the fulfillment center, how much kinetic energy would it have when it meets the ground?

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.