Pie in the sky? Amazon’s latest idea is a giant flying warehouse that will deliver your stuff by drone

Amazon is exploring the use of giant airships to serve as mobile, flying warehouses that could help the online retail giant deliver more of its goods by drone.

You might already be familiar with Amazon’s drone delivery service, which recently received a demo in the United Kingdom for the first time. But the idea for a fleet of large airships, disclosed in filings to the US Patent and Trademark Office, expand on those ambitions dramatically.

Imagine you’re at a baseball game and wanted to buy a meal or a jersey without ever leaving your seat. The system Amazon describes would allow you to place an order and receive the item within minutes. From its so-called “airborne fulfilment centres” hovering near the stadium, Amazon would dispatch a drone with your purchase. The drone would float or glide most of the way, then turn on its propellers and navigate itself to you directly.

While Amazon’s existing goal with drone delivery is to get you your stuff within 30 minutes, airships could potentially reduce that time even further. Unlike Amazon’s land-based warehouses, which by definition can’t move around, airborne fulfilment centres could respond to surges in demand even before they occur, according to the patent filing.

Large gatherings of people for a specific event, such as a concert or a sports game, are one example Amazon highlights as a clear-use case. But Amazon also appears to believe that using airships could reduce the costs of drone delivery in general.

In looking to airships, Amazon draws upon a long technological tradition dating back to the 19th century, when some of the world’s first self-propelled dirigibles were created.