Around the same time that Amazon was enjoying its “best ever” holiday season in 2016, it was reported that the global giant has plans to go sky-high — literally — with a patent for future floating warehouses.
According to a CNN Tech report, a CB Insights analyst discovered that Amazon had been approved for the patent last April. The patent details a floating warehouse in the form of a blimp at an elevation of 45,000 feet circling cities and launching drones, cutting delivery time to minutes. Once the drones had fulfilled their duties, they’d be picked up by a shuttle to whisk them back up to blimp for their next order. The thought of such a warehouse floating over a football stadium came to mind and rightly so: Amazon included in their patent its position over sporting events to deliver team merchandise or concessions.
There are regulatory, safety and other issues to be ironed out for sure. The report states that it’s unknown if the patent plans will ever really take off. Who knows? Probably Alexa.