Amazon asks FAA for drone restriction exemption, reveals details about its UAVs

Amazon Prime Air

Earlier this year, news leaked that online retail giant Amazon plans to deliver packages to you by drone in 30 minutes or less, despite current airspace restrictions on commercial UAVs. Amazon has filed a petition with the Federal Aviation Administration asking for an exemption from those limits.

At the Washington Post, which Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns:

In a filing to the agency this week, Amazon says that it's made tremendous strides with its drone technology. It's now working on eighth- and ninth-generation copter designs, just three months after the company's chief executive, Jeff Bezos, told shareholders Amazon was drawing up plans for its seventh-gen drone. Other details appear in the filing that the company hasn't disclosed before: Its drones are capable of flying at 50 miles per hour, for instance. And the team working on them contains "world‐renowned roboticists, scientists, aeronautical engineers, remote sensing experts and a former NASA astronaut."