Amazon says delivery drones will be ready when the FAA approves them
Rachel Lerman and Marcus R. Donner
Albany Business Review
It’s not exactly legal yet, but Amazon’s research and development team is still working “aggressively” on delivery drones, a company official said this week.
“The FAA is the biggest hurdle,” Dave Graybeal, a general manager at Amazon Fulfillment’s Dupont facility, said at a media event for a new distribution center in Kent, Washington.
Graybeal is optimistic Amazon will be ready to launch the Prime Air service when the Federal Aviation Administration approves drone use or legislation is passed to legalize it.
So we may see tiny drones carrying brown packages zooming overhead in the near future.
The Federal Aviation Administration approves drone use for commercial operations on a case-by-case basis, a spokesman recently told the Puget Sound Business Journal. Businesses must have a certified aircraft, a licensed drone pilot and operating approval.
So far, only two operations have qualified — and both were in the arctic, far from the busy streets of Seattle.
Amazon has hired lobbying firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld to get the FAA to come around to its point of view.
Amazon is likely closer than we realized to getting its drones in the air — the Economic Times of India reported Wednesday that Amazon will begin testing drones in Mumbai and Bangalore this fall.
The FAA is expected to speak publicly about drones by the end of the year.
