Amazon asks FAA for permission to test drones

Amazon is asking the Federal Aviation Administration for permission to use drones as part of its plan to deliver packages to customers in 30 minutes or less – a proposal has sparked widespread debate over the safety and privacy implications of drone technology.

The online retailer started a media frenzy in December when it outlined a plan on the CBS television program "60 Minutes" to deliver packages with self-guided aircrafts that seemed straight out of science fiction.

In a letter to the FAA dated Wednesday, Seattle-based Amazon said one of its research and development labs is working on aerial vehicles as part of Amazon Prime Air. The aircraft can travel more than 50 miles per hour and carry loads of up to 5 pounds. About 86 percent of Amazon's deliveries are 5 pounds or less, the company said.

"We believe customers will love it, and we are committed to making Prime Air available to customers worldwide as soon as we are permitted to do so," Amazon said in the letter.

The FAA allows hobbyists and model aircraft makers to fly drones, but commercial use is mostly banned. Currently, Amazon can test drones indoors and in other countries. But it cannot conduct flight tests in open outdoor space in the state of Washington.

Amazon is asking for an exemption, and said it would only test the drones over its private property, away from airports or areas with aviation activity — and not in densely populated areas or near military bases.

The FAA is slowly moving forward with guidelines on commercial drone use. In 2012, Congress required the FAA to establish a road map for the broader use of drones. The FAA has allowed limited use of drones in the U.S. for surveillance, law enforcement, atmospheric research and other applications. Congress also directed the agency to grant drones access to U.S. skies by September 2015. But the FAA already has missed several key deadlines and said the process would take longer than Congress expected.

Last year, the U.S. government created six sites for companies, universities and others to test drones for broader commercial use in Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia.

But the area near Seattle, where Amazon wants to conduct its tests, is not among those sites. Amazon plans to use one or more of the six FAA sites but said in the letter that it would be "impractical" to limit its testing to those areas.

So far, two drone models — Boeing and the Insitu Group's ScanEagle, and AeroVironment's Puma — are certified to operate commercially, but only in Alaska. One is being used by BP to survey pipelines, and the other is supporting emergency response crews for oil spill monitoring and wildlife surveillance, according to the FAA.

"We're continuing to work with the FAA to meet Congress's goal of getting drones flying commercially in America safely and soon," said Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy, in a release. "We want to do more research and development close to home."

The FAA did not respond to a request for comment.

After Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who founded the company 20 years ago, disclosed the Prime Air drone program, the plan was derided as a mere publicity stunt, while others raised privacy concerns and said the technology needed more refinement.

Despite the controversy, Amazon has rapidly grown the drones team in the past five months. It has hired roboticists, aeronautical engineers and a former NASA astronaut and recently advertised for a full-time communications manager for the program.

Delivering packages by drones will one day be "as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today," Amazon said in the July 9 letter.

Wire services