1 small delivery for a man, 1 giant leap for Amazon, drones

Amazon Prime Air

The Amazon Prime Air delivery drone (Photo by AMAZON)

ATLANTA — Drone delivery has begun.

On Dec. 7, a bag of popcorn, along with an Amazon Fire TV stick, left a Cambridge warehouse in the UK and 13 minutes later, both were accepted by an Amazon customer, one of two who had agreed to be part of the test program.

A video posted by Amazon shows a fully autonomous drone, no humans involved, taking off from the warehouse and flying over fields to deposit the package just outside the customer’s home.

Amazon, with drones, aims to make deliveries in 30 minutes or less. Packages must weigh five pounds or less and can only be delivered during the day and in clear weather. Amazon plans to expand the trial to hundreds of users. –Mae Anderson/AP

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