Amazon drones

Amazon’s drone delivery caused a flurry in the news recently. Delivering light packages by Amazon-logoed quadcopter made for an interesting animated video and sent the brain trust at CNN into hours of vacuous discussion and debate. I’m not seeing it. Yes it made for a great futurist idea and conveniently, and likely not unplanned, puts Amazon’s name out there at the start of the holiday season but Bezos is just punking us. Amazon faces both a math and physics problem with drone delivery.

The physics of flight means that to get range you need to add weight, either in the form of fuel or relatively inefficient (in terms of power to weight) batteries. Delivering that 5 pound package 20 miles, against even a slight headwind will require a rather hefty quadcopter. And that gets to the math. If drones have limited range because of weight and fuel limitations then Amazon will need more distribution locations and that means more stock and more money tied up in working capital. To achieve drone delivery for the masses, Bezos and crew will need to find a point that economically balances the cost of the drones and fuel against the carrying costs for stock. Even with interest rates hovering (pun intended) at zero, the clever folks at Amazon can’t make that math work.