Amazon shows off new hybrid delivery drone

Online retail giant Amazon has unveiled a new hybrid delivery drone that can fly both vertically and horizontally and travel up to 15 miles (24km).

The company over the weekend released a new advertisement about its Prime Air service, showing the prototype for its planned workforce drone.

The new drone contains eight rotors that allow the machine to soar upwards in a style similar to a helicopter. Forward movement is propelled by a large blade at the back of the drone, and the device can fly for as much as 15 miles (24 km) at 50 miles per hour (80kph).

Amazon said it was working on many prototype unmanned aerial vehicles and claimed there would be a family of Amazon drones designed for different environments in the future.

The Prime Air service aims to deliver purchases to customers within 30 minutes of an order, using among other things 'detect and avoid' sensors to ensure the machine does not collide with obstacles on its travels.

The US Federal Aviation Administration currently does not allow commercial drones to be flown beyond line of sight, but Amazon is pushing for unmanned aerial vehicles to operate semi-autonomously within designated air traffic lanes.

Amazon wants to be allocated airspace between 200ft (61m) and 400 ft (122m) to deliver packages weighing less than 5 pounds (2.26kg) to customers within 15 miles from one of its warehouses.