Courtesy Zipline

For years tech companies have been threatening us with drone delivery of online orders. Along those lines a company named Zipline has been promoting its drone delivery system that lowers a module on a rope to your door. Rope (in this case wire rope) once again proves its importance — only now it’s to make sure you get your stuff in minutes instead having to wait, like, a whole day.

The unit has a mothership drone that brings the item you’ve ordered to your neighborhood. Once in position over your house the drone hovers at 400 feet (Zipline claims this altitude will make the drone all but invisible and noiseless). The mothership opens a storage bay and then lowers a module the company calls “the droid.” The droid rides the unspooling cable to the ground. The droid has a set of lower doors that open and your package of hot chimichangas is deposited on your front walk (or perhaps a convenient table). Then the drone reels the droid back aboard and departs.

No mention of what happens in high winds, rain, snow, a snagged lowering rope or an ornery neighbor with a pellet gun who just doesn’t like drones.

You can see a video of how the system might work here.

#Ropebook