Amazon has this week filed a patent for airborne fulfillment centers (AFCs) that can be positioned over locations where orders for specific Amazon products are predicted to be in heavy demand. That's right, a warehouse in the middle of the sky, filled with assorted goodies that people, such as say, football fans in a stadium, might want when they have the desire for snacks, drinks or souvenirs.

In the filing, Amazon says the AFC may be located at about 45,000 feet and deploy drones, described as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), carrying ordered items from the AFC for delivery to user-designated delivery locations.

The filing further states that when one of these drones descends from the center, it will have the capability to "navigate horizontally toward a user specified delivery location using little to no power, other than to stabilize (it) and/or guide the direction of descent."

Smaller airships (shuttles) may be used "to replenish the AFC with inventory, UAVs, supplies, fuel, etc." and the shuttles may also transport workers to and from the AFC.



The drones, which may be temperature-controlled models designed specifically for food delivery, may be stocked at the AFCs and sent down to make a precise, safe scheduled or on-demand delivery.

An example cited in the filing was around a sporting event. If there’s a big championship game down below, Amazon AFC’s above could be loaded with snacks and souvenirs sports fans crave.

The AFCs could be flown close to a stadium to deliver audio or outdoor display advertising near the main event, as well, the filing suggested.

The patent reflects a complex network of systems to facilitate delivery by air.

Besides the airborne fulfillment centers and affiliated drones, the company has envisioned larger shuttles that could carry people, supplies and drones to the AFCs or back to the ground.

Using a larger shuttle to bring drones up to the AFC would allow Amazon to reserve their drones’ power for making deliveries only.

Of course, all these elements would be connected to inventory management systems, and other software and remote computing resources managed by people in the air or on the ground.

The filing also reveals that the shuttles and drones, as they fly deliveries around, could function in a mesh network, relaying data to each other about weather, wind speed and routing, for example, or beaming e-book content down to readers on the ground.

We reached out to Amazon to learn more about their progress on this concept, and whether or not they have an actual date for when they might launch, or even just test, their first airborne fulfillment center.

The company did not immediately reply to inquiries.