Amazon announced Monday it has picked the north England town of Darlington as the first site for its planned U.K. drone delivery expansion. Amazon was expected to expand Prime Air to the U.K. and Italy in 2024. After missing that initial target, the company opted to not share a timeline for this latest launch. Instead, the company has hedged its plans, noting in its announcement that it’s still in early stages and there is “still much work to do.” Amazon has yet to lodge its planning application with local authorities...

Darlington has been selected as the preferred location for Amazon's drone delivery service in the UK. The American tech giant announced that it is currently submitting planning applications to the local council and seeking approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for its drone-based delivery initiative, known as Prime Air. So far, Prime Air has been successfully launched in two US locations, delivering packages in under an hour using a fleet of drones designed, built, and operated by Amazon. In addition to securing planning permissions, the company plans to engage...

The company first started testing drone flights in Cambridgeshire a decade ago but its programme was dealt repeated setbacks and testing moved to the US. Test flights in the US were recently grounded after two of its drones crashed during light rain at Amazon’s testing facility. Flights of its new MK30 drones in Arizona and Texas were suspended last week. The new drone model, which is lighter and quieter than its predecessor, was designed to be able to cope with the inclement conditions that Amazon is more likely to face...