What's faster than next-day delivery? Try a 30-minute flight from warehouse to your door -- via octocopter. That's Jeff Bezos' vision for the Amazon of the not-so-distant future.
Jon Skillings
Jon Skillings is an editorial director at CNET, where he's worked since 2000. A born browser of dictionaries, he honed his language skills as a US Army linguist (Polish and German) before diving into editing for tech publications -- including at PC Week and the IDG News Service -- back when the web was just getting under way, and even a little before. For CNET, he's written on topics from GPS, AI and 5G to James Bond, aircraft, astronauts, brass instruments and music streaming services.
On "60 Minutes" Sunday, CBS' Charlie Rose got a surprise from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: octocopters. Bezos said that within about five years, Amazon could be winging packages to your home from its fulfillment centers in as little as 30 minutes, using drones. Of course, the Federal Aviation Administration will have to give its blessing first.
(Disclosure: "60 Minutes" is produced by CBS, the parent company of CNET.)
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Amazon octocopter
Amazon's octocopters are about the size of a microwave, but they're mostly just frame and rotors. While drone aircraft used by the military and the CIA have come under sometimes intense criticism, Amazon has a more benign and ordinary expectation for the fleet it envisions.
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Amazon PrimeAir
Bearing the name Amazon PrimeAir, the octocopter could be bad news for delivery truck drivers. It's also meant to show off Amazon's more adventuresome side. "We like to pioneer, we like to explore, we like to go down dark alleys and see what's on the other side," Bezos told "60 Minutes."
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Amazon octocopter clamps hold
After rolling down a conveyor belt, a PrimeAir package gets clamped into the undercarriage of an octocopter.
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Amazon PrimeAir package
Bezos said the current generation of octocopters can carry a 5-pound package -- and 5-pound packages account for 86 percent of the items that Amazon delivers.
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Octocopter in flight
The Amazon octocopters could wing their way from warehouse to customer doorstep in 30 minutes, Bezos said.
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Amazon PrimeAir at its destination
An Amazon PrimeAir octocopter shows how it makes a smooth landing at a customer's home. It did not ring the doorbell.
