Amazon recently announced plans to try to develop the ability to deliver packages with autonomous flying machines. It’s funny, I blogged about the same idea back in April. The venture will face huge challenges. One of them is safety.

Thirty-four years ago today, a fan was killed at a Jets-Patriots game by a flying lawnmower.

No, really.

Some nut combined a lawnmower’s body and a model airplane’s machinery for the half-time show. It crashed into the stands and hurt two people, killing one of them. I don’t think this is the one that was at the half-time show, but it probably looked a lot like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNWfqVWC2KI

(Links via Bob’s Blitz. The Jets won, by the way.)

The point is that these things can be dangerous, especially if there’s no one piloting it. Amazon’s promo video at the top shows the drones delivering things in perfect weather, but there’s no mention of how it would handle strong wind, rain, snow, vandals or thieves. Drones also raise important privacy concerns. Lawsuits about faulty or misused drones are inevitable. (The Jets were sued for having such a dangerous halftime show.)

Despite the challenges, there’s definitely a place for drones in the private market. Amazon is also testing out using robots for warehouse sorting and loading. This year Mesa County, Colorado saved almost $10,000 by doing an annual air survey of a landfill with a drone instead of a piloted craft. There are places where drone delivery can definitely be useful: In Alaska, things often have to be delivered by air anyway.

A hundred years ago, it would have seemed crazy to suggest that mail could be delivered through the air. Today, regular first-class interstate mail is delivered by airplanes every day. All mail is Air Mail.

The military has already begun to use drones for delivery.