1. Account suspended
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    26 Jan '16 20:35

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  2. Cape Town
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    27 Jan '16 12:25
    Originally posted by DeepThought
    No one would use a drone for carrying cargo,
    I thought everyone knew about Amazons plans? And they are not alone, Google has been experimenting with it too as have others.

    it's just too small to be of any real use,
    What is too small? How do you define 'drone'? To me it means a vehicle that is not human piloted, but I see the dictionary does allow for human pilots if they are not on board (ROVs). Certainly what the public was calling drones prior to the advent of cheap quadcopters were the army ROVs which are planes not helicopters.
    A cargo drone for longer distances would probably have a 'plane' mode for the long distance part. I have certainly seen hybrid designs being tested.

    If we are simply talking about pilot-less aircraft I predict that cargo flights will go pilot-less within the next 20 years.

    Besides freight tends to go to freight terminals so the flight path can be chosen to minimise risk,
    Small cargo (in the 100kg range) would be being delivered to homes, offices or warehouses. Sure you can have a landing zone set out, but that won't eliminate risk.

    in the case of a random human passenger the point of departure and arrival are not known at any given time and likely to be densely populated,
    The craft in the OP requires you to set the flight plan before you take off. So the departure and arrival points are known. It would also be possible to have designated landing zones that they are required to use.
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