Amazon Patent Lets Drones Perch On Streetlight Recharging Stations

To paraphrase The Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman": "Oh yes, wait a minute Mister Droneman (Wait) Wait Mister Droneman. Please Mister Droneman, look and see (Oh yeah) If there's a letter in your bag for me" Drones are a short-range technology. Many of today's all-electric small quadcopters can only fly for 20-minute bursts before needing to swap batteries or plug in again. To make delivery drones work, the drones will either need to fly only short distances, or they'll need places to recharge along the way. For Amazon, which seems determined to lead the field in drone delivery, the answer might come from a recently approved patent: docking stations for drones, installed on existing streetlights.