Amazon Drone Delivery is Back in Action

After a two-month hiatus, Amazon Prime Air delivery drones have returned to the skies over Tolleson, Arizona, and College Station, Texas, Amazon said in an update Monday.

According to the firm, the voluntary pause in service was made due to safety concerns involving a tiny culprit: specks of dust that interfered with the drones’ altitude sensors. Prime Air discovered the issue while flying in the dry Arizona air where its MK30 model encountered more dust than in Texas.

Though the drones “never experienced a safety event” in flight, Amazon said it made “enhancements” to the aircraft that have been evaluated across more than 5,000 test flights and authorized for service by the FAA.

The FAA told FLYING it approved Prime Air's MK30 demonstration test plan—which "validates numerous software updates, including updates to the altitude sensing systems"—on March 12.

“As a result of that testing…we have complete confidence in the underlying safety of the drone,” Amazon said.

Per Bloomberg, which broke the news of Prime Air’s hiatus in January, the pause followed previously unreported crashes of the MK30 at its test site in Pendleton, Oregon. Two incidents in December were reportedly caused by light rain interfering with the drones’ software, with a third in September involving a midair collision between two drones.

At the time, Prime Air spokesperson Sam Stephenson told FLYING the firm was halting operations to make a software upgrade but could not share whether it was linked to the software involved in the crashes. Stephenson said the incidents were not the “primary reason” for the pause.

In February, another MK30 drone sustained “substantial” damage during a crash at Pendleton, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report.

“These incidents occurred at our private and closed testing facility, where the purpose of these tests is to push our aircraft past their limits—it would be irresponsible not to do that,” Stephenson said in January. “We expect incidents like these to occur in those tests, and they help us continue to improve the safety of our operations.”

Amazon on Monday said that in addition to 908 hours of test flights, testing the software upgrade involved construction cranes, helicopters, and even Cozy Coupe kiddie cars to gauge the drone’s obstacle avoidance. Its testers “inject” risk into simulated missions, such as by placing a children’s toy in the drone’s landing spot to gauge its detection capability. Other tests are more involved.

“When we test the detect and avoid capability, we’re flying an airplane at the drone,” said Adam Martin, head of Prime Air’s flight test and safety organizations, in Monday’s update. “We’ll fly a helicopter at it.”

Personnel also simulated failures of the aircraft’s motor, speed controller, propellers, and primary flight computer to gauge how it reacts in emergencies. These tests were run “over and over, blitzing the drone at different points of a mission, in horizontal and vertical flight, right after launch and at the moment of delivery,” Amazon said.

With the MK30 back in action, Prime Air can refocus on its formidable goal: 500 million annual drone package deliveries by the end of the decade. To make that a reality, the company will need to ramp up service. Despite ambitions to expand to the U.K. and Italy, its operations in the U.S. are limited to College Station and Tolleson. Its inaugural service in Lockeford, California—launched in 2022—shut down last April.

In College Station, Mayor John Nichols urged the FAA to deny Prime Air’s proposed expansion of the service, citing noise concerns. One resident told Wired Magazine that the sound was “like your neighbor runs their leaf blower all day long.” KTBX News in Texas reported in March that Amazon will not renew the lease for the building that houses its College Station drone hub, which expires in September.

In a statement shared with CNBC, Amazon spokesperson Av Zammit said Prime Air has seen “unprecedented levels of demand” since returning to flight. The company in May 2023 said it had made just 100 drone deliveries but is looking to compete with the likes of Alphabet’s Wing—which per its website has made more than 450,000 deliveries—and industry leader Zipline, which in March said it surpassed 1.4 million.

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