This concept doesn't make a lot of sense to me. If it makes sense it is that drones and dirigibles can't fly in wind about 3 to 5 miles per hour without problems especially if they are carrying the weight of packages. I can see the point of a dirigible platform for carrying packages and loading packages onto drones for delivery. However, doesn't it make more sense to launch these drones out the top of the roofs of existing UPS or FEDEX trucks. Why Dirigibles as take off platforms for drones carrying packages.
Maybe it's because like I said before neither drones (this size) or dirigibles can function above 5 mph winds anyway. So, this must be it. So, I guess if you have above a 5 mph wind you deliver packages the old fashioned way?
So, drones are very very weather dependent upon when you can launch them.
Imagine a drone trying to deliver a package to someone with people on the street, phone lines, trees, cars, planes, kites kids are flying, toy drones, you name it when a 10 mph wind gust comes up and blows the drone propellers into the back of some kids head?
This is real world. So, unless you shield the rotors, fingers, hair, eyes, faces are going to be disfigured in an instant near the ground, to say nothing of birds, insects, and animals on the ground.
Actually, this is even a scarier concept than I 1st thought because they plan to put these dirigibles a 45,000 feet altitude and then glide (drop) these things out of there from that altitude so they can make their deliveries and return to another smaller airship nearer the ground which will eventually return the used drones back up to the mothership at 45,000 feet.
However, what about air traffic between 30,000 to 37,000 feet and all the little drones? What about VFR (Visual Flight Rules) air traffic between zero and 10,000 feet? This plan likely cannot be approved for a variety of air traffic problems. Look at the problems passenger plane pilots already have with little private drones that are flying 400 to 1000 plus feet in altitude already.
However, I could see them flying out of the roofs of UPS and Fedex Trucks in a given area (10 square miles) while the truck is parked in a parking lot somewhere. However, it is true they would need more lift to carry packages and not just "drop out of the sky" to their locations from 45,000 feet.
To see the mothership dirigibles maybe you should click on the word button two lines down:
Dec 28, 2016 · Amazondrones, meetyour mothership. It's a bird, ... Amazon has been pushing to make drone deliveries mainstream since it announced Prime Air in 2013.
Amazon drones, meet your mothership - CNET. 29-12-2016 15:59 via CNET News. ... The keyboard averages 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 1,700 customers (rea
Amazon drones, meet your mothership - CNET . ... storing a fleet of drones and packages to deliver. Amazon said its UAVs would take "little to no power" to deliver ...
Amazon has visions of a great fulfillment center in the sky.Photo by USPTO
This isn't what I imagined from Amazon's cloud-based technology.
In
recently discovered patent images, Amazon drafted a plan to have an
airship 45,000 feet above the Earth, storing a fleet of drones and
packages to deliver. Amazon said these unmanned aerial vehicles would
take "little to no power" to transport goods to consumers' doorsteps if
they are dropping down and gliding instead of lifting off and taking
flight.
Amazon has been pushing to make drone deliveries mainstream since it announced Prime Air in 2013. It made its first drone drop-off on December 15, in a trial run in the UK. The company has filed multiple patents
-- including the airship warehouse -- for drones since announcing its
plans. But they might all just stay that way, considering Amazon's complaints about the Federal Aviation Administration's snail-like pace for UAV regulations.
One
of the perks of having a sky center instead of a traditional warehouse,
Amazon noted, was that it could move to spots where the weather is
better and demand is higher. It pointed out football games as an
example: The airship could fly to the stadium and drop off jerseys and
snacks for fans.
The online retailer received the patent in April
for its "Airborne Fulfillment Center" -- a fancy way to say "warehouse
in the air." Amazon had filed for the patent in December 2014, but it
was only recently unearthed by CB Insight's Zoe Leavitt.
In
its patent filing, Amazon suggested that the airborne eyesore would
stay in the skies for an indefinite period -- relying on smaller
airships to restock the flock with more packages, fuel, supplies and
drones.
Because it would take too much energy for the drones to
return to the airship, they would just head to one of the smaller
airships to be lifted back up, Amazon suggested.
The airships
could also be used as billboards in the sky: Amazon noting that the
center could be lowered to 2,000 feet above cities and serve as
advertising space. That includes the smaller shuttles that would be used
to restock the ship.
The e-commerce giant has been pushing forward on new concepts, like Amazon Go, an experimental supermarket with no staff, letting customers shop by grabbing items and walking out.
At least, for
now, the airship will be manned, with Amazon planning to have workers in
its Airborne Fulfillment Center -- though it did point out the piloting
system could be automated.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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