Delivery drone hubs in US suburbs meet growing resident pushback over noise
Neighbors of Amazon's Baton Rouge site complain about drone whine, while Wing, Zipline and Amazon plan fast expansion and states challenge the FAA in court.
Residents near an Amazon Prime Air distribution center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, say the company's MK30 delivery drones have disrupted daily life since flights started last August. One neighbor counted a drone passing every 48 seconds on a Saturday morning. People describe a high whine like a weed whacker running for hours, and some worry about low flights over schools, playgrounds and a cemetery.
Similar complaints have come from towns in several countries. In April, Cobb County in Georgia rejected a zoning request for a Wing drone site. In late September, fifteen US states and Harris County in Texas took the FAA to court over its plan to loosen environmental review rules for drone sites. Wing's early 2018 trial near Canberra was shut down after local opposition.
The companies keep scaling up. Wing wants 270 US hubs by the end of 2027, Amazon aims to serve 500 municipalities by the end of 2026, and Zipline and Uber target one million daily deliveries by 2029. The firms call their drones quiet and say most feedback is positive, but they have not published noise data that settles the dispute.
Why it matters
Drone delivery depends on local approval as much as on technology. Watch the court case over FAA review rules and whether firms start talking to residents before a hub opens. A heavier drone like Amazon's that must fly low may face tougher fights than lighter models that lower parcels on a tether.
