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Google Project Wing– and Amazon Prime Air–type delivery drones represent the current limit of what is possible for the baseline design.

• We assumed a simple, moderately efficient hybrid multicopter configuration equipped with contemporary lithium-ion batteries.
• For the baseline design, we estimated the energy to deliver a 5-lb payload out to a radius of ten miles to be about 1.5 kilowatt hours.

An advanced design enables more gains through aerodynamic refinements and improved batteries.

• The combination of a higher lift-to-drag ratio (L/D), denser batteries, improved structural efficiencies, and blended aerodynamic and propulsive control could dramatically reduce energy consumption, leading to five- to seven-fold improvements in flight efficiency.
• Improved flight efficiency could support multi-stop delivery drones, which could be more efficient for dense delivery demands.