Amazon bids to create drone air corridors for parcel deliveries
Amazon is hoping its putative drone delivery arm can finally take off by floating the idea of carving up our skies into designated ‘drone zones’ to give it the space it needs to operate a fleet of the unmanned vehicles.
Executives propose to designate areas of low altitude airspace below 500ft for this purpose, by salami slicing different altitudes for use by different drone and unmanned vehicle operators.
This would see skies up to 200ft given over to low velocity, local traffic whilst air from 200 to 400ft would be reserved for high speed deliveries over greater distances. Beyond that a buffer zone would be implemented to ensure segregation from manned aircraft.
The idea is the brainchild of Gur Kimchi, vice president of Amazon Prime Air, who told a NASA-hosted conference on unmanned vehicles that it was important not to ‘lock into today's capabilities’.
Amazon is seeking to further reassure aviation authorities by promising to install advanced ‘sense and avoid’ systems on its higher altitude craft to ensure none go haywire and inadvertently stray into the path of another vehicle.