Australia's New Drone Delivery Service Will Fly You... Textbooks

There's no doubt that one day General Tso's wonderful chicken will get dropped on your doorstep by a drone. But a new drone courier startup in Australia plans on delivering something decidedly more old media: textbooks.

UAVs are ideal couriers: They're fast, aren't likely to get hit by buses, and don't wear spandex. Australian startup Flirtey hopes to capitalize on that by building a drone delivery network. And because you've got to start somewhere, Flirtey has partnered with Australian textbook rental service Zookal in order to deliver books in mere minutes.

The concept is pretty well put together, assuming Flirtey can get regulatory approval. Starting next March, orders placed through Zookal's Android app will be fulfilled with one of six Flirtey UAVs, with customers able to track the drones in real time. Curiously, Flirtey claims its drones will be fully autonomous, with "collision avoidance" technology and a ceiling of about 400 feet.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the drones will hover at a height of three meters, and customers can release their parcels—up to a max of two kilograms—by pulling a cord. Flirtey's six-blade design has rotor and battery redundancies for safety, but currently only has a three kilometer range. Still, the big bonus is in value: the Herald says "same day postal delivery in Australia can cost up to $29.95, a cost Zookal absorbs, but Flirtey will cost just $2.99."

Of course, the big question holding back commercial drones is regulatory framework. In the US, technology for tacocopters, cupcake drones, and UAV lattes already exists. But the FAA has proved curmudgeonly when it comes to drone use, and the growing commercial drone market is in a constant state of limbo. Flirtey hopes that Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority will prove more open-minded, and is currently in talks with the agency. Still, until it gets approval, the concept will remain only that.

But textbooks? Really? Of all the things to deliver by drone because of speed concerns, a medium that's unbelievably easy to digitize seems like a strange choice. What better example of how media innovation lags far behind everything else? Books can be transmitted close to instantly over the internet, but because physical copies must persist—I'd posit that Zookal's rental model and DRM concerns likely play a role—we've now got a startup basing its model around flying heavy-ass books to customers because it's cheaper.

Flirtey says it plans to expand to delivering other things, but it's tough to let this book thing go. That drones have to deliver books because they can't be rented over the internet is ridiculous. I mean, if drones are going to deliver things, why not try them out with something that can't be digitized? Like maybe a margarita?

@derektmead