I’m the site lead at one of Amazon’s first drone delivery sites. Here are 6 cool facts about our operations in Texas.

My military experience taught me to be hypervigilant when it comes to safety, and that’s definitely something I continue to practice at Prime Air. We run thorough safety checks on the equipment and airspace conditions, and the team is empowered to stop operations at any point if something isn’t right.

I’ve had to make the call to pause operations due to high wind conditions on a particularly stormy day, and we coordinate with other aircraft operators like the local hospital life flight program to keep the skies clear when they need them.

Most Amazon orders will make their way through a few different facilities before they’re delivered to your doorstep. Drone deliveries are a bit different. Our site in College Station has a fulfillment center where we store thousands of items, as well as a launch pad where we load and send orders out for delivery.

Drone deliveries will integrate with Amazon’s Same Day facility network in 2024 to help us move even faster and more efficiently, and the process will remain largely under one roof.

My favorite part of my job is seeing how quickly we get orders to customers. It’s a huge thing to be able to deliver within 60 minutes. Our fastest delivery in the last three months of year was a was a box of Annie’s Cocoa and Vanilla Bunny Cookies that was delivered in 15 minutes and 29 seconds.

Our drones can deliver items that weigh up to five pounds. Popular items that fly off our shelves are everyday essentials like batteries, toothbrushes, and beauty products. One of the heaviest items I’ve seen us deliver was a huge tub of antibacterial hand soap.

Our safety checks include an in-depth inspection of each drone before every flight. If the employee notices any issues during this check, we will bring the drone in for maintenance and swap it out for another that passes the safety inspection. We perform most of our maintenance onsite, and we have a fleet of drones at the ready to keep delivering for customers safely.

This year will bring some big changes to the drone program. My team is particularly excited about the arrival of the new MK30 drone, which will be faster, lighter, and quieter than our current model. The drone will be able to travel twice as far as the current model, which means we’ll be able to reach more customers. I’m really excited to give more people the opportunity to experience drone delivery. I actually live just outside of the range where the current drone model can deliver, so I personally can’t wait for the new model that will be able to deliver to my home.

These are just some of the many things that make Prime Air an exciting place to work. We’re helping shape the future of delivery, and I can’t wait to look back and say I was on one of the first teams to make drone delivery a reality.