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I respect amazon's audaciousness with this idea but I think it might be better to stick to the ground as the drone needs to go somewhere once its done and to go

• zaroth 10y ago
  I think the theory is that it uses no power while it is coming down heavy. Going back up with no payload is easy. The potential energy stored by the height of the airship is the solution to the battery problem. It might also solve much of the noise and air traffic problem if these drones are basically floating down silently from above, and then with no cargo they can head back up either loudly but instantly or quietly and calmly.
  • Slump 10y ago
    According to the patent, the drones would not fly back up to the airship but rather they would fly to collection center on land, be loaded into a smaller ship with other supplies and then flown back to the large airship. Presumably with the energy saved from gliding rather than flying to their delivery destination they'd have more range to make it to collection centers that are more sparse then if they just flew back and forth from the centers themselves.