Amazon started Prime Air drone deliveries in Northeast Ohio on Thursday, September 24, flying MK30 drones from its CLE2 fulfillment center in North Randall to customers within 7.5 miles (12 kilometers). Amazon says it is the company’s first drone delivery site in Ohio, and it is the Cleveland launch Amazon promised in August. Amazon has 21 drones at the site, and it says the first Ohio delivery was an electric bike charger.
The service covers a circle around the former Randall Park Mall site, southeast of downtown Cleveland, not the city as a whole. The aircraft is the same six-rotor, 83-pound MK30 I photographed at XPONENTIAL in Detroit this spring.
About 3 miles (5 kilometers) from Amazon’s launch pad, Cleveland Clinic has been flying prescriptions to patients’ lawns with Zipline since early August. It does that with four aircraft.
Amazon’s North Randall Hub Flies 21 Drones in Daylight Only
Amazon’s North Randall site launched with 21 drones, and Amazon expects it to add 55 jobs. Flights run in daylight, for items under 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) that fit a large shoebox and are stocked in the building. Prime members fly free on orders of $50 or more.
Smaller Prime orders cost $2.99 and everyone else pays $4.99, the national pricing in Amazon’s August 19 expansion announcement, which named Cleveland among five metros coming next on the way to nearly 500 cities and towns. Shoppers pick items carrying a “Drone delivery” label and confirm a drop spot at home on their first order, Amazon told Cleveland.com. Axios Cleveland reported in July that the circle takes in most of Cleveland’s southeast side and suburbs including Cleveland Heights, Solon and Chagrin Falls.
Amazon says every Prime Air operation is authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA’s drone environmental review page listed no document for Ohio when DroneXL checked it on September 25. Since July 28, a site document is no longer required: a hub that fits the FAA’s national finding can be cleared in an internal review with no public comment period, as DroneXL laid out this month. Northeast Ohio residents who want to reach Amazon about the flights will find the phone line and chat route in our guide for residents.
Zipline’s Prescription Drones Already Fly Inside Amazon’s Circle
Cleveland Clinic’s Zipline service flies from its Beachwood administrative campus, about 3 miles (5 kilometers) northeast of the North Randall warehouse, inside Amazon’s 7.5-mile circle. At the end of August, four Platform 2 aircraft were flying about 20 prescription deliveries a week to patients within 5 miles (8 kilometers).
The two aircraft deliver differently. Zipline’s P2 holds at up to 300 feet (91 meters) and lowers the package on a tether without landing, as DroneXL reported when the program went live. FAA paperwork puts it at 55 pounds empty with up to 8 pounds of payload, figures DroneXL pulled together in August. The MK30 weighs 83.2 pounds at takeoff, carries 5, descends over the yard and releases the package from about 13 feet (4 meters), according to FAA filings summarized on DroneXL’s aircraft comparison page. Zipline’s aircraft carries a parachute, which brought one down onto a Houston-area highway on September 4. The MK30 has none, a choice Amazon has not explained.
The fleets run the other way. Beachwood has charging hardware for 12 aircraft and flies four. Amazon opened North Randall with 21.
DroneXL’s Take
Northeast Ohio now has both versions of drone delivery over the same east-side streets, and I know which one I’d want over my house. Zipline’s Cleveland Clinic flights carry medication to patients who used to wait hours for a courier. Amazon’s first Ohio flight carried an e-bike charger, in a heavier aircraft with no parachute. I’m for drone delivery when the cargo justifies the flight, and a prescription does. A charger can ride in a van. That won’t stop Amazon, which says the FAA has authorized its flights. My case is for Amazon to build an aircraft closer to what Zipline flies. In the last two weeks MK30s have set down unplanned beside a Baton Rouge road and on a Waco lawn, and the Drone Delivery Tracker now has 21 more of them to watch over Cuyahoga County.
Sources: Cleveland.com, Crain’s Cleveland Business, Axios Cleveland, Amazon, FAA
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
