The Twitterverse recently freaked out after someone tweeted a video of a giant blimp emblazoned with the Amazon logo gliding over a community while releasing a swarm of delivery drones.  The video was originally created by a digital artist who goes by the handle @zozi009.  This video was meant to be a piece of digital artwork, not an actual occurrence.  But it is easy to see how the collective world of social media was fooled into thinking this was real.  Because we live in a world where we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what science fiction and our true future will be this was a believable image.

For starters, the video that @zozi009 was perfect and seamless.  We are able to see the computer generated image of the 3D blimp from multiple angles as it floats along in a very realistic manner.  Combined with the background of a factual location and images of real drones, it created a perfect blend of fact and fiction.  @zozi009 shared the original sketches that led to the design concept of the blimp as further proof that this was a work of imagination.  In fact the artist has become known for other similar videos such as one featuring a giant whale swimming gracefully through a city skyscape, or characters from video games participating within real crowds of people.

Besides the clear talent of @zozi009, the fact that this video was based off of a concept that Amazon was toying with made it even more believable.  In 2014 Amazon filled a patent for an airborne fulfillment center that was the inspiration for the blimp this artist created.  It’s no secret that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is pushing to find a way of making deliveries by drones a reality.  One of the issues the logistics engineers at Amazon are trying to work around is the amount of energy required for drones to be constantly taking off from a fixed point to travel to a delivery destination.  The idea to have an airborne fulfillment center was borne.  

This fulfillment center would be a blimp like structure, much like @zozi009’s creation, that would be stocked with a means of housing products, packing materials, and the drones needed to deliver orders, along with personnel to see things through.  The drones could then float down from the blimp saving time, money, and energy.  Needless to say this patent never cam to fruition.  But that hasn’t stopped Amazon in their pursuit to make drone deliveries applicable.  Amazon Prime Air is still very much in the works, and has begun small scale testing in the UK.

So while we still don’t have a way of receiving goods to our homes by drones today, it is easy to see how so many people were taken by the video that @zozi009 created.  It is a science fiction that is steeped in realistic principles.  While we may never have swarms of drones floating down from the belly of a blimp to deliver our weekly groceries, it is a good bet to think that, in one way or another, home delivery by drones will be here soon enough.

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