“Zipline” is an American company specializing in drone delivery systems. While package delivery via drone has been promised in the US for some years, Zipline has been operating successfully in Rwanda since 2016 as a medical supplies (meds and blood) delivery system. And it seems to work *really* well… something like 90 seconds from receipt of order to launch of the drone, which flies at 60+ mph at a radius of up to 50 miles, delivering up to 4 pounds of payload via parachute. Since startup, Zipline has made over 20 million miles of flights. This system seems not only remarkable successful, but remarkably efficient to run; their main distribution center launches 500 drones a day, and they’ve made this Really Neato System as run of the mill as SpaceX is making launch vehicle recovery.
While this is great for emergency deliveries in rural Africa, it would not be a great system for package delivery in American cities and suburbs… you want your package *delivered,* not dropped, and delivered accurately, not somewhere in a dozen yards radius. A big enough quad/octocopter could over course do this, landing right on your porch and dropping off the box. This type of drone delivery has been proposed for years, but there are obvious problems. First, the things are *LOUD.* Second, all those blades spinning about would pose a hazard to people, pets, property. Third… have you *seen* city folk? Chances are real good that in the half second it takes to land and drop off, some “youths” would spring upon it, not only stealing the package but beating the drone to death with baseball bats. Because that’s where we are now, I guess.
Zipline has what looks like a decent answer to those, though. They still use a big quadcopter, but it lowers a “gondola” up to 400 feet. The gondola has some basic maneuver capability, but no more than needed for translation; all the lift is provided by the main drone. This keeps the “loud” and “dangerous” far overhead. And with the “loud” further away, there’s less chance of Cultural Enrichment spotting it and ambushing it. Additionally, their 50-pound drones are *really* quiet due to special props.
Below is an interesting video on the topic, covering both systems. There is definite cringe… the YouTube goes to Rwanda to see it in action, which is fine; he somehow finagled his way into the operations system, working to get an order processed and launched, which is fine, but his “I just saved a life!” schtick gave me a headache.
The military applications for this are obvious, but somehow were left completely out of the video. Never mind the dullsville of dropping off medical supplies or even ammunition… Zipline has figured out how to make a nearly silent drone delivery system. An inherently quiet drone with a sensor platform/bomb pod suspended 500 feet below it? You could likely drift along over a trench at night, the gondola maybe only ten feet up, dropping off small care packages as you go. The drone itself would be virtually silent, and so far up that it would be virtually impossible to shoot down with small arms. Ordnance that was set to go off via timer or remote activation would allow this to scatter bomblets around and set them all off at once. Or, heck, just pack the gondola with high explosives, napalm, thermite, WP, drift it right up to somebody or something your really don’t like and BLAMMO. Won’t hurt the drone none.