Amazon Prime is launching a new Drone delivery service from a fulfillment center in Kansas City, Kan. The operational area will include roughly 2/3’s of the City of Shawnee, with operations occurring from sunrise to sunset. While not every home will be eligible to participate in the drone delivery, you will almost certainly see Amazon drones flying overhead and possibly making deliveries in your neighborhood.

Here are some basic facts about the service:

• The drones will operate from the Amazon Warehouse on Grandview Avenue
• The total operational radius is approximately 7.5 from the warehouse, or, roughly a 15-minute flight
• Each drone weighs 83 lbs. and can carry packages weighing up to 5 lbs.
• The drones produce approximately 67 decibels from a 33-foot hover (similar to traffic or a home vacuum)
• The drones can fly in wind and light rain
• Drones include a perception system to detect humans, animals, and obstacles at delivery point (if drone detects an obstacle, it will not deliver a package)
• Packages will be dropped at a selected delivery point from approximately 12 feet in the air
• Amazon will identify residential addresses eligible for drone delivery based on presence of trees and other potential obstacles that would make it unsafe for the drone to operate at delivery altitude
• Drones will fly between 180 and 279 ft while delivering a package and 280 to 277 ft while return to the warehouse

This service is provided by an independent, private company and is overseen and given permission to operate by the Federal Aviation Authority. The City of Shawnee is in contact with Amazon so both the Police and Fire Departments know how to respond in case of an incident involving an Amazon Drone, however, the City is not responsible for the operation of the Amazon Drones.

To contact Amazon with questions or concerns, you can email them at [email protected] or visit their website for more information.

Amazon has provided an internal article about the drone delivery system that you can access at the here. 

To see more about the service, how it works, and what you can expect to see, here is the full presentation from Deputy City Manager Colin Duffy and Divisional Chief for Emergency Management Matt Epperson to the City Council during their regular meeting on Monday, Nov. 10.