The holiday season is in full swing, and so is the last-minute shopping rush. For procrastinators like me, one modern Christmas miracle, courtesy of online retailers like Amazon, is getting gifts delivered to your front door overnight, all without ever leaving your couch. Pulling this off requires feats of logistics, and Amazon has had some close calls. That's one reason why the tech giant has spent the past several years building up an extensive air delivery network it calls Amazon Air—the better to speedily ship an ice scraper, say, from a warehouse in Minnesota to your house in Miami so you have something to give your dad the next morning. Amazon approached air cargo with the same breakneck pace and focus on metrics it applies to the rest of its empire. But the aviation industry moves more slowly, and not everyone appreciated Amazon's methods. Pilots revolted, airport neighbors complained, and even some of the company's own employees grew concerned that its business objectives clashed with safety and environmental aims. WIRED's Caitlin Harrington has written the inside story of Amazon Air, speaking to dozens of current and former employees, as well as the pilots, grounds crew, and others helping the tech giant take to the skies. For a company that is famous for ruthless efficiency, its air project could be considered a defect—a costly, emissions-spewing fleet of cargo jets that often go underfilled or are used to ship goods that could be carried more cheaply by road. "At UPS, they say 'Don't fall in love with the airplanes,'" says one former employee. "At Amazon Air, they seemed to have fallen into that trap." —Caitlin Kelly | Features Editor |
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