Pie in the Sky .... Pizza delivery by drone

In this fast World, pizza is a rage … I had earlier posted on delivery of pizza for a BBC set designer on the train – not only within a limited time but at a Station where the train would halt for less than a minute – fortunate enough it was a two carriage train…  speedy delivery is one of unique aspects to enhance sales…

Often we hear about ‘drone’  - there are many meanings and one of them is 'male honeybee'. In earlier centuries, it was given the figurative sense of 'idler' or 'lazy worker', as male bees make no honey, which is sometimes given as a folk etymology of the word 'drone' itself. The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.  The birds once inhabited islands undisturbed and perhaps with no challenges, lost their ability to fly – thereby becoming easy prey to hunters of all kind.

Unanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are commonly known as drone – remotely piloted aircrafts – which are controlled either autonomously or by onboard computers.  They are usually deployed for military and special operation applications, but also used in a small but growing number of civil applications, such as policing and firefighting, and nonmilitary security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Now read the following :

Dodo Pizza in the northern Russian city of Syktyvkar posted a video online over the weekend showing the first airdrops of pizzas to customers and promised the service was not just a one-time PR stunt. It was pioneering effort of Russian Company taking 'pie in the sky' to a whole new level.

Dodo Pizza, a Russian fast food chain claims to have taken a slice out of the competition by becoming the first to offer pizza delivery by drone. According to its website, it is not simply a PR stunt but they had sold six pizzas in one and a half hours – nothing unique about the sale – but everything about the delivery – delivered using a drone. Obviously it would have been magic to the recipients.  In the video, a pizza agent in an orange vest dispatched to a local park is shown taking orders from a gaggle of hungry students. Moments later, a tiny copter hones into view and lowers a pizza to the customers on a piece of extending rope.

By the speed and unique thought they have taken delivery to newer heights and have a pie on the air now … they promise to get deliveries out within 30 minutes and if it cannot complete an order within an hour, the customer will not be charged.  The fast food chain hopes to expand delivery by drone to 18 other Russian cities, flying pizzas to beaches and university campuses.  According to CopterExpress, the Russian company that developed the drones, they can carry up 5kg of weight at fly speeds of up to 40 kilometers per hour. They also have built-in GPS systems and cameras, so each journey can be tracked. It is stated that  the  only snag in the new delivery method is that the destination and route of each drone flight has to be carefully planned and preapproved by authorities.

Very interesting indeed.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

27^th June 2014.