Agustine, consider wearing a hard hat :D

[HiloHawaiian]

Company plans drone to carry 400 pound payloads

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Ya I been following that company. Pretty impressive for sure. Delivering to remote communities is what is needed for cheaper air service.
When food prices are insanely high in rural Canada, where Ketchup costs $14 and Sunny D costs $29 they need this kind of service to lower prices.

 

[HiloHawaiian]

Yea, I agree. Food prices in rural Hawaii are ridiculous, but nothing like that! Alaska has the same issues as rural Canada, but wouldn't the weather be a big issue? These things would be able to handle much wind, let alone rain, sleet, hail, snow! I haven't heard a much about Amazon's Prime Air program since this:

Amazon is issued patent for delivery drones that can react to screaming voices, flailing arms

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Looks like they have a pretty good control center, using satellites for control.

 

[HiloHawaiian]

Looks like they have a pretty good control center, using satellites for control.

That’s a really impressive, well-designed system. It really makes sense to start this kind of service to serve remote locales. I did note all the promotional footage was taken in perfect weather though....

 

[Cori]

Drone delivery of packages is most attractive for a company that has many places to deliver to within an area that can be serviced by a drone (such as a city). If a drone has to fly 100 miles (200 miles round trip) to deliver one package, it no longer becomes cost effective. I live in a rural area of the mountains of Colorado - where we don't have the delivery services that are available to people in a city (such as Denver). We DO have both UPS and FedEx delivery. However, instead of driving all over the countryside, even those services drop our parcels off at our local Post Office. Likewise, Amazon (who has their own delivery vehicles in all the larger cities, also drives ONE vehicle, full of parcels, to a rural Post Office, where they drop off their parcels.

One must realize that, with drone delivery, deliveries of parcels is done ONE-AT-A-TIME. Again, this can still be done cost-effectively in a densely populated area. But, if a drone must fly a long distance to deliver one package, it is not cost effective at all.

 

[Jagerbomb52]

Drone delivery of packages is most attractive for a company that has many places to deliver to within an area that can be serviced by a drone (such as a city). If a drone has to fly 100 miles (200 miles round trip) to deliver one package, it no longer becomes cost effective. I live in a rural area of the mountains of Colorado - where we don't have the delivery services that are available to people in a city (such as Denver). We DO have both UPS and FedEx delivery. However, instead of driving all over the countryside, even those services drop our parcels off at our local Post Office. Likewise, Amazon (who has their own delivery vehicles in all the larger cities, also drives ONE vehicle, full of parcels, to a rural Post Office, where they drop off their parcels.

One must realize that, with drone delivery, deliveries of parcels is done ONE-AT-A-TIME. Again, this can still be done cost-effectively in a densely populated area. But, if a drone must fly a long distance to deliver one package, it is not cost effective at all.

I would seem Drone Delivery Canada thinks otherwise and has developed UAVs to optimize the cheapest way to get the goods delivered. Would love to see\fly the one hauling the 400 lb payload that they are testing.
Remember 400 pounds of medical supplies can be pretty dam expensive so it would be cost effective to use a UAV.

 

[Cori]

We're talking about two different types of drones here. The one you are referring to is a 'heavy-lift' aircraft. The one I am referring to would typically carry up to 10 pounds and would deliver the majority of packages to residential customers within a populated area - such as a city.

 

[HiloHawaiian]

This is the way to do it. I saw the 1st flight. It carries a bit more than 400 lbs, but in typical Lockheed Martin fashion, it's was way ahead of the market to support it. Some day....