what is being developed is a completely different system, much to the disgust of the ATCOs
We ( ATC) have been involved since the outset on the UTM systems and always have advocated for segregated airspace , which is basically what these corridors are .Basically as long as they keep away from airports and stay outside controlled airspace we are fine with the concept.
But the drone delivery problems are elsewhere :
The first problem lies in the mental conception of people not familiar with aviation that there is nobody below 500ft while the reality is different .. Helicopters and UL gyrocopters use that airspace regularly as well as hot air balloons and others larger aircraft like fire fighters aircraft ( think Canadairs picking up water on lakes and rivers ) and the standard concept of see and avoid does not work with drones.
The second problem is noise. It is extremely annoying with the current quadro copters . The Australia experiment ( Camberra last year ) is worth reading and had led the company ( Wings) to stop the experiment while the regulator is thinking what to do next .
The 3rd is public acceptance: In remote regions , or scarcely populated areas there is probably a real benefit for drone deliver for high value items (e.g. medicines, electronics, etc..) where a 30 min delivery is versus 3-5 days by road ,and there people acceptance might be high . , however in dense populated areas and suburbs, the noise factor and privacy concerns will be a huge issue to resolve .
Last , Bezos was promising Amazon Prime drone deliveries in 2013 already to happen within 2 years everywhere on the globe .We are now 7 years later and it is still for tomorrow...
