Amazon has filed a patent for huge flying warehouses that could house its fleet of delivery drones.
The patent, originally filed by the online retailer in 2014, emerged yesterday. It details that the warehouses, referred to as "airborne fulfilment centres" (AFCs),  would be carried by airships.
These AFCs could be stationed above cities, and used to store and rapidly deliver items at times of high demand. They would do this using the drones ? also known as unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.
The document states that drones dispatched from AFCs would use no power, as they would glide downwards rather than fly. The drones are also said to be able to cruise and hover at altitudes of up to 45,000 feet (14,000m). "The AFC may be an airship that remains at a high altitude and UAVs with ordered items may be deployed from the AFC to deliver ordered items to user-designated delivery locations," states the document.
"As the UAVs descend, they can navigate horizontally toward a user-specified delivery location using little to no power."
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