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Delivery drones: IToldYaSo

Drones are going to fill the skies.

Amazon will be using drones to provide express delivery of a wide range of products from their online catalog... whisked quickly and efficiently from a warehouse to your door in the blink of an eye.

Well for years that has been the hype spouted by those who claimed to be "experts" but who, in reality, probably couldn't even tie their own shoelaces.

For many years I've also claimed this was simply ridiculous and that "drone delivery" as proposed was impractical, uneconomic and borderline impossible with any available technology.

Never the less, billions have been invested in the "drone delivery" industry and both politicians and regulators have been swayed into clearing the airspace that these craft would use in order to facilitate the money-making of those who have promised this vision of the future.

As a result, we've seen the hobby of flying RC model aircraft and recreational drones all but destroyed through ever-tightening regulatory restrictions and constraints.

Well guess what?

It's starting to look as if *I* was right and the politicians, along with their ever-obedient regulators, have been duped.

This article, titled Amazon’s drone delivery program ‘one gigantic oversell,’ says report into UK operation spills the beans on just how much hype has been bandied about on this subject.

Don't be misled into thinking "oh, that's just in the UK"; Amazon has based most of its activities in the UK because they found the regulatory environment there more suited to their activities in this area.

Yes, the reality is that although there are some very specific, very limited, use cases for drone delivery, Amazon will *not* be filling the skies with delivery drones anywhere, any time soon. This is despite repeated promises over many years that such things were just a year or so away.

Of course while I am pleased to see the truth actually creeping out from under this fog of hyperbole and empty promises, I am also saddened to see that once again my belief that politicians are basically very stupid and perhaps just a little too self-interested and greedy has been reconfirmed.

Even worse, I've seen the hobby I'm so passionate undergo a prolonged and unncessary attack by those who thought they were facilitating a business that was, to be honest, just never going to fly for a myriad of reasons.

The outrageous thing is that none of those making the decisions at a government or regulatory level even bothered to do the most basic investigations into the claims being made by those greasing their palms. As I pointed out so long ago, the promise of pizza and other consumer-level deliveries by drone doesn't even pass the sniff-test, let alone a more careful scrutiny of the economics or even the science involved.

Never the less, we have ended up with rules that prohibit people from flying even the tiniest little toy plane or drone (some of mine weigh just 20-50g) in their own back yards -- whilst paving the way for the promised flights of huge, heavy, dangerous "delivery drones" over exactly the same spot with impunity.

Of course none of this affects me any more because I choose not to allow that.

I won't have a bunch of proven-stupid politicians and ignorant bureaucrats telling me how or where to "fly safely" when, through their own actions in respect to this whole "drone delivery" myth, they've demonstrated their own utter incompetence in this area.

For my own part, I shall continue to fly safely, where and when I see that it is possible to do so. If regulators and politicians, who have likely never even flown one of these craft themselves have a problem... well that is indeed THEIR problem, not mine.

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