While some predictions of the future of air cargo may seem like \u201cpie in the sky,\u201d Amazon is considering making that phrase a reality. In its latest bid to reinvent the industry, Amazon has filed a patent for \u201can airborne fulfillment center (AFC) and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to deliver items from the AFC to users.\u201d
\nThis planned addition to Amazon\u2019s growing drone army is a giant hovering mothership\/warehouse that is already being nicknamed \u201cthe Death Star\u201d \u2013 although perhaps Laputa, the flying island described in the 1726 book \u201cGulliver\u2019s Travels,\u201d by Jonathan Swift, is more apt in this case.
\nIn the abstract for the patent application, which was filed in December 2014, but only discovered on Dec. 28, 2016, by Zoe Leavitt, an analyst for CB Insights, the AFC \u201cmay be an airship that remains at a high altitude (e.g., 45,000 feet) and UAVs with ordered items may be deployed from the AFC to deliver ordered items to user-designated delivery locations.\u201d
\nThe filing describes smaller UAVs attached to the mothership that \u201ccan navigate horizontally toward a user-specified delivery location using little to no power, other than to stabilize the UAV and\/or guide the direction of descent.\u201d Shuttles would replenish the AFC with inventory, replacement UAVs, supplies, fuel and whatever biological manpower is required \u2013 likely very little.
\nAn interesting line, buried deep inside the filing, helps flesh out Amazon\u2019s \u201cten-steps-ahead\u201d strategy to induce consumers to buy products that they don\u2019t know they want, or need. The filing describes a scenario in which \u201citems likely to be ordered are determined and stocked in the inventory,\u201d in advance of a sporting event, while the flying warehouse hovers nearby to accommodate the impulse purchases of fans.
\nWhile the sort of flying warehouse described in the filing seems fantastical in 2016, Amazon has demonstrated an uncanny ability to use its intellectual property in novel ways across its growing range of business ventures. It may even know the next time you want to order pie \u2013 from the sky.
\nTo view the full patent application, please click here.
\nSource: aircargoworld<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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