Amazon Is Dreaming of Blimp Warehouses

By using gravity for the flight down – the drones would essentially glide and use only small amounts of power for navigating purposes – Amazon drones get a practically free ride.

Amazon.com, Inc., the e-commerce giant, has been awarded a patent to build a floating warehouse that would serve as a launchpad, or mother ship, for drones carrying packages to customers. Yes, it sounds like something out of a science-fiction movie.

The patent described as “airborne fulfillment centers” shows Amazon’s big picture plan wherein the floating airships would function as airborne warehouses.

Amazon’s aerial dreams aren’t limited to drone deliveries. In the distance, you see similar packages being dropped off around your neighborhood. The replenishment shuttles could transport other items to the airship as well, such as fuel and workers.

The main aim of the Amazon using the drone is to deliver the products to the customers within 30 minutes of the target.

Filed in April, the patent was only discovered by a technology analyst at CB Insights on December 28.

Amazon conducted its first commercial drone delivery earlier this month when the online retailer delivered a pack of snack and Fire TV video device in Cambridge, UK. The filing describes a scenario in which “items likely to be ordered are determined and stocked in the inventory”, in advance of a sporting event, while the flying warehouse hovers nearby to accommodate the impulse purchases of fans. Although they wouldn’t change location for each individual delivery, they could move to areas in which a demand for services was anticipated. They would then drift lower to release drones to make deliveries. Rather than build fulfillment centers on the ground, Amazon is apparently looking to build them in the sky. Similarly, Amazon was awarded a patent in July for using various structures as docking stations for its drone fleet.

The documents also lay out plans for a mesh network that would allow the drones, AFCs, and shuttles to communicate with each other, sharing details about weather, wind speeds, and routing, for example.