[Photo:  Drone Delivery  /  digitaltrends.com]

Amazon has been awarded a patent for a giant flying warehouse that acts as a launchpad for drones to deliver items within minutes. The patent filing was awarded in April this year but only circulated this week.

The U.S. e-commerce giant described plans for an "airborne fulfillment center" (AFC) such as an airship or blimp that would float at an altitude of around 45,000. The airship will be stocked with lots of products. When a customer places an order, a drone or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) will fly down and deliver the package. Amazon insists that this would require little power because the drone would be gliding down rather than having to take off and land.

If this plan saw the light of day, Amazon would likely need regulatory approval from aviation authorities which could be complex.

This is not the first patent Amazon has been awarded regarding drone delivery. In July, a patent showed how Amazon was thinking about tall buildings and structures such as lampposts or churches as docking stations for drones to recharge. Another patent described how drones would "talk" to each other to plan routes and communicate.