Pirates of the skies

Last year, customers of Amazon in Cambrige began signing up for a novel delivery option. A 25kg drone, which is able to fly up to 10 miles gripping a book-sized package underneath, took just 13 minutes to fly from the warehouse nearby, landing briefly to drop the order on a delivery mat marked with the distributor's single-letter logo in the customer's rear garden. Amazon plans to slowly roll out the service if the limited trial proves successful, aware that regulatory restrictions over flying robot couriers could prove to be a major obstacle. Aviation authorities are concerned about the safety aspects of unattended, battery-powered robot aircraft routinely zipping around the skies. In the UK, drones cannot fly legally out of sight of their operator or close to buildings without a special licence. But drone delivery may have another problem. The package may never reach its intended destination, while the drone itself becomes part of a criminal or even a terrrorist network.