Alternate means of controlling large numbers of commercial drones over airports and populated areas

A method for controlling the ingress and egress of drones into and out of an air traffic controlled space around an airport, said method comprising:

• providing a plurality of drones each including a controller configured to receive and follow flight instructions;
• providing packages that arrive at the airport on a cargo plane to a carrier facility at the airport that receives the packages to be sorted and attached to the drones for delivery;
• selectively attaching a package to each of the drones at the carrier facility, wherein each of the drones includes a vision sensor for providing images of an area around which the drone is flying, where the images are provided to the controller in the drone and used for navigation and collision avoidance;
• defining an outbound corridor that is a controlled section of the air traffic controlled space where only outgoing drone traffic can fly and no other air traffic can fly, where the outbound corridor begins at a drone takeoff location and ends outside of the air traffic controlled space;
• providing instructions to the controller causing individual drones from the plurality of drones to leave the drone takeoff location and fly through the outbound corridor under a blanket preauthorization from air traffic control and without requiring air traffic control of each of the individual drones;
• defining an inbound corridor that is a controlled section of the air traffic controlled space where only incoming drone traffic can fly and no other air traffic can fly, where the inbound corridor begins outside of the air traffic controlled space and ends at a drone landing location;
• and
• providing instructions to the controller causing individual drones from the plurality of drones to return to the drone landing location through the inbound corridor under a blanket preauthorization from air traffic control and without requiring air traffic control of each of the individual drones, wherein the drone takeoff location and the drone landing location are located proximate the carrier facility.

A system for controlling the ingress and egress of drones into and out of an air traffic controlled space around an airport, said system comprising:

• a plurality of drones each including a controller configured to receive and follow flight instructions;
• means for defining an outbound corridor that is a controlled section of the air traffic controlled space where only outgoing drone traffic can fly and no other air traffic can fly, where the outbound corridor begins at a drone takeoff location and ends outside of the air traffic controlled space;
• means for causing individual drones from the plurality of drones to leave the drone takeoff location and fly through the outbound corridor under a blanket preauthorization from air traffic control and without requiring air traffic control of each of the individual drones;
• means for defining an inbound corridor that is a controlled section of the air traffic controlled space where only incoming drone traffic can fly and no other air traffic can fly, where the inbound corridor begins outside of the air traffic controlled space and ends at a drone landing location;
• and
• means for causing individual drones from the plurality of drones to return to the drone landing location through the inbound corridor under a blanket preauthorization from air traffic control and without requiring air traffic control of each of the individual drones.