What Happens to Amazon Prime Air in High Winds?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 13, 4:42PM EST · Published Nov 30, 6:43AM EST

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What Happens to Amazon Prime Air in High Winds? — © courtesy of Amazon.com Inc.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has dropped more hints about its Prime Air product, which can deliver some packages to customers via drone. Missing from its promotion is that small “airplanes” cannot operate well, or at all, in many kinds of weather conditions, many of which are common.

In a new online display of photos and videos, the e-commerce company writes:

We’re excited about Prime Air — a future delivery system from Amazon designed to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using small unmanned aerial vehicles, also called drones. Prime Air has great potential to enhance the services we already provide to millions of customers by providing rapid parcel delivery that will also increase the overall safety and efficiency of the transportation system. Putting Prime Air into service will take some time, but we will deploy when we have the regulatory support needed to realize our vision.

The drone will not work in high winds, although Amazon has not made that point. It also almost certainly will not work in driving rain, ice or heavy snow, nor in areas with large numbers of electric and cable wires or tall buildings. Prime Air has limited use, even if the company can get regulatory approval for it to operate commercially.

It is easy to argue that something as revolutionary as drone delivery cannot possibly be a part of Amazon’s tools to bring packages to customers. The e-commerce site argues otherwise:

Is this science fiction or is this real?

It looks like science fiction, but it’s real. One day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road.

How will it work?

Amazon Prime Air is a future service that will deliver packages up to five pounds in 30 minutes or less using small drones. Flying under 400 feet and weighing less than 55 pounds, Prime Air vehicles will take advantage of sophisticated “sense and avoid” technology, as well as a high degree of automation, to safely operate beyond the line of sight to distances of 10 miles or more.

Even modern science cannot beat the weather. Prime Air may not be a toy, but it is a flying object with limited utility.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.