Amazon conducts first commercial drone delivery

Amazon.com Inc.'s drone delivery programme has liftoff-from a rural corner of England.

Amazon last week made its first customer delivery by drone, carrying a package containing popcorn and a Fire TV video-streaming device several miles to a two-story farmhouse near Cambridge, UK, in 13 minutes. A video the company released Wednesday shows a track the drone used to launch, a platform from which employees monitored takeoff, and a landing pad on the customer's lawn.

The delivery marks the start of operations for Amazon's drone programme after three years of skepticism and regulatory hurdles. Prime Air, as the initiative is known, aims to get packages to customers within 30 minutes.

"First-ever #AmazonPrimeAir customer delivery is in the books," Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a tweet Wednesday morning.

Amazon said it will expand its test in the coming months from two customers in a roughly 5-square-mile area of largely farmland and fields to dozens more.

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