Amazon secures patent to build ‘drone mothership’

You may have heard of storing things “in the cloud” but probably not like this.

It looks like Amazon is about to take “cloud storage” to a whole new level, as the online retailer was awarded a patent earlier this year for a drivable drone warehouse. The patent was recently brought to light by analyst Zoe Leavitt.

In the patent, Amazon described the dirigible as an “airborne fulfillment center.”

Experts have speculated that Amazon’s airship could house a fleet of delivery drones, which could make deliveries possible within hours. During high volume times, Amazon could direct the airship to strategic locations. Some drones might even be pre-loaded with high-demand items, cutting delivery times further, experts have said.

The floating storage facility could even be positioned over a major event like a football game or massive concert. According to the patent filing, the ship could send out drones to deliver food or souvenirs.

“The speed of delivery provides near instant gratification to users for item purchases and greatly increases the breadth of items that can be delivered,” the filing said.

Potentially Amazing Future

Amazon and other technology businesses are constantly filing patents, Just last week, Amazon had a patent approved for delivery drones that included measure to keep from getting shot down by would-be package thieves. However, there’s no way to be certain if any patents will become actual products in the real world.

Despite the ephemeral nature of a floating warehouse and drone mothership, the concept adheres to model that Amazon already uses: Stockpile products that people are probably going to order in strategic places to reduce delivery times.

Recent innovations implemented by the online retailer include to Amazon lockers and two-hour courier delivery for select products. Amazon also has locations at various universities that offer Prime members the capacity pick up almost any Amazon product the same day they order it.

Amazon isn’t the only company coming up with groundbreaking logistics solutions designed for speed or ease of use. Each day FedEx spends $30,000 to send an empty plane with the intention of quickly rerouting it wherever shipment volume peaks.

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Image credit:HO/AFP

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