Last summer Amazon made headlines with Prime Air, their prototype for a 30-minute delivery system using unmanned aerial vehicles. You can check out their concept video below.
Just yesterday, the FAA granted Amazon an experimental airworthiness certificate to begin research and development of their delivery systems.
So we’ll have drone delivery next week, right?
Uhh … not quite.
Amazon can now go and actually fly their unmanned air systems (UAS), with certain caveats, of course. For example, the UAS can only fly below 400 feet within visual line-of-sight, and the pilot must have a private pilot’s license and be medically certified. Why is this important? Well, would you want to attempt to fly in this before it had been tested a few (hundred … thousand) times?
But this is a big deal, right?
Sort of. This airworthiness certificate is hardly the first the FAA has granted. There are several dozen certificates that have already been granted to different companies, ranging from agriculture to photography and building inspections. There are hundreds more applications that are in the process of approval (including those from academic institutions).*
In reality, you’re still not getting drone delivery anytime soon. Amazon is still in the experimental phase, and I’m assuming there are a lot of bugs to work out. In terms of major bureaucratic hurdles, this is a big one, and it lays the groundwork for many future projects. In the words of Zeus/Liam Neeson: “Release the Kraken!”
[*Edit: Thanks to a reader for pointing this out. We glossed over a lot of the details regarding FAA approval. The FAA granted a special airworthiness certificate to Amazon, which is different than the certificates of authorization (COA) that have been issued to other companies working in agriculture, photography, etc.]