Amazon get one step closer to realising their dreams as the US allows its first drone delivery. Australian drone startup Flirtey, Virginia Tech and NASA collaborated on the project, which saw medical supplies delivered to a remote Virginia health clinic. This from Mashable:

 The operation kicked off with a fixed-wing aircraft, operated by NASA Langley Research Center pilots, carrying 24 packages of medicine from a pharmacy in Oakwood, Virginia to Lonesome Pine Airport in Wise. Flirtey’s smaller unmanned craft then hauled the medicine the remaining distance in multiple trips to the Wise County Fairgrounds, lowering its cargo via tether to near the clinic. Per Flirtey’s video, a single flight took around three minutes.

I’ll be honest, unless you have some kind of drone fetish, this video is not that exciting, but about 2.5 minutes in you can see the moment the drone drops off the package, which is pretty cool.

This is all undoubtedly a huge step forward for drone technology:

Proving that unmanned aircraft can deliver lifesaving medicines is an important step toward a future where unmanned aircraft make routine autonomous deliveries of your everyday purchases,” Matt Sweeny, Flirtey CEO said.

And as someone still reeling from the non-delivery of my ASOS packages back in April, (I still check the mail box sometimes, my optimism is eternal) I hope that future happens soon.

[source: Mashable]