Drone Mandolin Delivery?

[JCook]

Maybe they will switch to Helium balloon delivery...

A couple of years ago Amazon put out an idea of having large blimps flying around with inventory in them. Drones would then deploy from the "mother ship" with items and deliver them, then return to the blimp. As inventory decreased, smaller blimps would come and dock with the bigger one and restock it. I think it was about 2 years ago that I saw this scenario online somewhere, complete with a schematic diagram.

Jack

[Mandoplumb]

Well, not that I really want to be the devil's advocate, but did you have any choice when Amazon started shipping via FedEx and UPS? Or when they started shipping through the USPS? Or when they went to their own local fleet of shipping trucks and drivers instead of UPS, FedEx or USPS? Nope. Amazon selects to do what it believes is reliable and least expensive. When the time comes, they'll make that kind of decision again, as will every other company that ships a lot.
I'm not really reporting on the social aspects of this, and I do realize they exist. But there are also social aspects of every decision a company makes, aspects that do make a difference to other people in one way or another. Ultimately, companies make their
decisions, and predictably, their decisions are usually based on what costs less.

Yes you did have a choice, you could not buy from Amazon. I get tired of people saying we can't do anything and then telling how bad a boycott is on the economy. We will put up with anything a business wants to do if it saves us a nickel and then say well there's nothing we can do.

[Pepe]

Pretty sure the the front end of drone delivery won't look much like what most folks are imagining and will take advantage of package characteristics that are mostly ignored, other than in cost by traditional delivery methods. Those would be size, weight & probably value. Drones won't be delivering your guitar or mandolin, but likely will be delivering your strings, picks, straps, Billy Gibbons tee shirts; prescriptions, vitamins, replacement plumbing parts, Mandolin Cafe ball caps, etc. Fedex trucks & drivers and the like are mega-overkill for tons of deliveries made every day.

[dhergert]

Yes you did have a choice, you could not buy from Amazon. I get tired of people saying we can't do anything and then telling how bad a boycott is on the economy. We will put up with anything a business wants to do if it saves us a nickel and then say well there's nothing we can do.

Hmmm, respectfully, you might be willing to boycott Amazon and whoever else might like to use drones to deliver goods (ie: FedEX, UPS, USPS, the local grocery store, etc.), but I'm not. I'm actually a little anxious to see how it works out, if I live that long.

In talking with my kids, I'm pretty sure the majority of the population by the time this is widespread will simply be amused.

Also, I'd agree about the thought of resource overkill in using a huge delivery truck to deliver average 5 pound packages to 100 different homes within a 10-mile radius. And that's not even considering the various accidents that these vehicles may be involved with.

We may like it, or we may not like it, but change happens.

[John Flynn]

I attended a lecture on this at U. of Richmond put on by some serious drone experts. What they said was that the limiting thing for drone delivery is a reliable traffic control/anti collision system that works to the FAA's satisfaction. Drones are legally a class of aircraft and unfortunately, noise from aircraft is the FAA's to regulate, so we are going to have to put up with that. People talk about shooting them down, but it is a federal felony, as well as any local charges arising from unlawful discharge of a firearm.

As far as the weight of packages go, there are ways around that. If you augment the drone with a mini-blimp-like gas envelope, like a tiny version of Frank Piasecki's PA-97 Helistat design, it could haul heavy packages and it could go longer distances because the rotors would only need to provide control, forward thrust, and the lift of the payload itself. The gas envelope would null out the lift of the airframe, which would free up a lot of energy. Think something like the picture below, about 10 feet long and five feet across.

FWIW, I got to meet Piasecki and see the Helistat at Lakehurst back in the day. It was a great design idea, that failed disastrously in execution. But the aerodynamic idea was valid.

[Beanzy]

These are handy for controlling intrusive noise.

[Bertram Henze]

Maybe they will switch to Helium balloon delivery...

Can't beat life on being a punster. Around the year 2000, a German company startup called CargoLifter experimented with airships for hauling very large engineering parts that were difficult to manage on roads.
They built a huge hangar for these vehicles and went bust. Now that hangar is a holiday resort called "Tropical Islands".

Now whatever will evolve from this drone idea, we're sure to see some fun. Strings on wings.

[Jess L.]

These are handy for controlling intrusive noise.

Lol. Wait, why are there 3 earplugs per set? Oh ok I see now, I just did a Google Image search, they're not earplugs (I see that now after zooming in on the pic) - article about bolas. LOL! Unless taking out a drone incurs the same penalties as shooting down a regular aircraft, that could be a problem...

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Edited to add:
Oops, I hadn't seen this until now:

... Drones are legally a class of aircraft... People talk about shooting them down, but it is a federal felony,

So... darn it... can't legally take down a drone...

[Jess L.]

I can't help but think that some of this drone talk by the big corporations, might just be posturing to keep their employees in line to make people think twice about asking for pay raises etc... lest they all be replaced by machines (drones), and have no job at all. For the companies that employ Teamsters drivers (not sure how many companies that would be), one wonders what their Union thinks about all of this. Does the Teamsters Union still have any clout, or do they now just do what management tells them to do? (Don't answer that last question, I don't want to start a political discussion, but I'm wondering.)

All that aside, the idea of drones delivering packages (and probably screwing it up badly on a fairly regular basis) sounds to me like something out of a futuristic sci-fi nightmare movie. Makes me glad I'm old enough, and in a remote enough sparsely-populated area, that I will probably never have to deal with drone deliveries.

[Bertram Henze]

sounds to me like something out of a futuristic sci-fi nightmare movie.

They'll have them in Coruscant. And I am quite confident some of those life forms could use the triple earplugs.

[Mandoplumb]

Dhergert I'm not one to boycott drones, most of what you said is right on. What I was saying is we just give up and accept something we really hate saying " there's nothing I can do". That is just not so if we and enough others take a stand and vote with our pocket books. I haven't bought Shell gas in 40 years over a dispute. I told them at the time they had lost my buisness, have they missed me? No. Have I missed them? No

[Jess L.]

They'll have them in Coruscant. And I am quite confident some of those life forms could use the triple earplugs.

[Beanzy]

I think the disadvantages of aerial delivery might mean we’ll end up with something like star wars robot. With delivery truck stopping in a central location, then disgorging semi autonomous mini delivery trains that head off then split and do all the delivery drops in the time a driver might do one. Any issues would be dealt with by the centre being alerted and a human choosing the appropriate next move.

[Folkmusician.com]

Society needs quite a few years of exposure before something becomes "normal". Drones are making progress, but not quite there yet.

In 2017, Reno became one of the 6 FAA-approved test sites. We get a little more exposure than most areas.
2018 Olympics winter games drone show, was a major step.
We now have over 1 Million "registered drones" in the USA.

They are predicting somewhere around 10x in the next several years. This will also be the case with Commercial usage.


I admit I am a little excited to see what happens.