Hexacopters for Amazon

Online retailer Amazon has taken an unusual initiative to deliver goods using ‘hexacopters’ but this is likely to face technological and regulatory barriers. Amazon’s plan to deliver packages using such small unmanned aircraft, also highlights potential “tangible benefits” offered by UAVs, which have suffered from association with larger unmanned military aircraft.

According to Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos, such UAVs could eventually carry small packages up to 10 miles (18.5km), allowing the company to deliver goods in areas within 30 minutes of ordering. Bezos concedes the technology is still in development and that regulatory hurdles will not allow Amazon’s unmanned aircraft to operate until at least 2015.

A commercial operator needs a special airworthiness certificate for experimental aircraft from the US Federal Aviation to fly such systems in US airspace and so far, the FAA has permitted only one company to operate UAVs, in the Arctic airspace in Alaska. Technological challenges such as a weight and navigation systems may still make Amazon’s plan impractical, according to Nickolas Macciarella, chair of the aeronautical science programme at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida . “Also, the transportation cost would be higher than (the value) of the product concerned”!