Amazon’s drones can now fly further. As far as the eye can see, to be exact

Amazon’s drone delivery service is advancing slowly (literally), but without pause. The company has been testing its drones since 2022 in some American cities and it is expected that they will soon arrive in Italy and the United Kingdom, but things are as they are: it is a limited proposal in many aspects, starting with the maximum flight distance. However, and from todayAmazon’s drones can go further.

Context. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires all commercial drone operators to be able to maintain a line of sight with the drone. That is, the drone can fly as far as the eye can see. It is what is known as VLOS flight (Visual Line of Sight). In Spain, for example, that distance is 500 meters and in the United States it is 1,500 feet, about 457 meters.

That requirement needs to be met, according to Amazon, until the FAA “approves technology that allows drones to be flown safely beyond line of sight.” That’s when we start talking about BVLOS flights (Beyond Visual Line of Sight), which are those in which the operator cannot see the drone directly with his own eyes, although he can see it with other instruments such as a screen.

In between, and to have the complete picture, are the EVLOS (Extended Visual Line of Sight) flights that, basically, allow you to extend the flight range up to 1,000 and 2,000 meters using trained observers (that is, those who have a professional pilot’s license). of drones).

Beyond. Now that we know that we can understand the importance of Amazon’s announcement. The company founded by Jeff Bezos has confirmed that the FAA has given Prime Air “additional permits” that allow it to “operate our drones beyond line of sight,” so its drones can go farther and the service can scale. According to Amazon:

“To obtain this permit, we developed a BVLOS strategy, which includes onboard detect and avoid technology. We have spent years developing, testing and perfecting our onboard detect and evade system to ensure that our drones can detect and avoid obstacles in the air “.

In addition to presenting all the system information to the FAA, which has not been revealed in the statement, the firm gave a demonstration in real environments before the agency’s inspectors to show its capabilities. According to Amazon, they flew in the presence of real planes, helicopters, and hot air balloons to prove that the drone did indeed detect and move away from obstacles.

Expansion. Thanks to the BVLOS approval, Amazon will be able to scale the delivery service to other areas. The first step is to expand the reach of the College Station (Texas) delivery area and later, at the end of the year, integrate this system into the delivery network. The objective, stated by Amazon, is to offer same-day deliveries from their warehouses. The drone they are using there is the MK-27, capable of flying 12 kilometers and carrying 2.3 kilos.

Aim. Amazon is optimistic about its proposal. Although it has taken many years to get started, the company aims to “create a safe and scalable way to deliver packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using highly autonomous drones.” Its long-term goal is to “deliver 500 million packages a year by drones by the end of this decade”, a not inconsiderable figure but closer thanks to today’s announcement.

Images | amazon

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