Amazon gets permission to test Drone deliveries in the UK

Amazon  Inc said on Monday it has entered into a partnership with the British government to speed up the process for allowing small drones to makes deliveries. The world’s biggest online retailer, which has laid out plans to start using drones for deliveries by 2017, said a cross-government team supported by the UK Civil Aviation Authority had provided it with the permissions necessary to explore the process. Amazon unveiled a video last year showcasing how an unmanned drone could deliver packages, narrated by former Top Gear TV host Jeremy Clarkson. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said last month the use of drones for deliveries will require separate regulation from their general use. Wal-Mart Stores Inc said last month it was six to nine months from beginning to use drones to check warehouse inventories in the United States. The deliveries are part of Amazon’s Prime Air program. Amazon had previously tested Drone deliveries in the US . The program eventually hopes to use protruding urban features including streetlamps as base stations for drones. There were some indications that Amazon wanted to test its Drone delivery service in India as well, but that did not take off. Amazon has warehouses in Mumbai and Bengaluru, making these places ideal for such a test. With Inputs from Reuters