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Amazon UK lays claim to world’s first drone delivery

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By John Glenday, Reporter

December 15, 2016 | 2 min read

Amazon UK has got its much-heralded drone delivery system off to a flying start after it completed the first commercial flight of an automated drone to ferry a customer’s package from warehouse to home in just 13 minutes.

Testing has been taking place in the US, Austria and Israel but it was Britain which beat them to the punch with a real world demonstration of the technology, albeit in a relatively safe rural environment within close proximity to Amazon’s depot.

Prime Air has been a dream for the online retailer for three years but until now it has failed to get off the ground. With its first successful delivery under its belt however the service will be hoping to scale up the operation to many more customers.

The inherent limitations of the delivery method restrict payloads to just five pounds in weight at present however, easily taken up by an Amazon Fire Stick and bag of popcorn in the publicity flight.

Amazon has praised the relatively lax regulatory environment covering drones in the UK as a principle reason for it investing research and development cash in the country.

Ultimately Amazon hopes to make the sight of buzzing overhead drones as common as that of a road-bound delivery truck.

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