package shipping especially when time is a factor becomes extremely expensive and inefficient. A lot of wasted gasoline is used to drive packages to and from the regional airport hubs.

I propose using the highly accurate GPS guided smart bombs to deliver packages right to ones door. Modern smart bombs can have accuracy up to 7" The end user would erect a small net sized device on a roof or open area with an integrated IR beacon to indicate the right home, this net could use a shoot to lead to a secure location (so people can't steal the package). On a nice sunny day the cargo plain would fly overhead and "carpet bomb" the area with parcels

Then, At the convenience of the delivery company on their normal rounds they could pickup and reuse the bomb casings (the trunks are empty on the return anyways). The technology already exists for the guidance systems only the payload needs to be changed.

Faster and less wasteful. That's what we call win-win http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_bomb
-- metarinka, Jan 21 2010

Guided Bomb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_bomb
What is a guided bomb? [Aristotle, Jan 21 2010]

physical internet physical_20internet
Hardwire version [8th of 7, Jan 21 2010]

Travelling Post Office http://en.wikipedia...velling_Post_Office
Prior Art [8th of 7, Jan 21 2010]

Orbital_20toaster [normzone, Jan 21 2010]

Invited by someone...from next door to France. http://heritage.sco...dea-goes.2661853.jp
[AbsintheWithoutLeave, Jan 21 2010]

Surreal, imaginative, dangerous. [+]

I suspect it may not entirely original, at least not in respect to this site though ...
-- Aristotle, Jan 21 2010


Mrs Pocmloc says that in the 19th century there were serious considerations of using cannons to shoot mail-containing cannonballs in stages across the countryside.

Couldn't this idea be individualised? Why do only the big parcel companies get to play? I take a bomb casing from my stash of empties, load it with the parcel and enter the recipients address. After the computer has done the calculations, I add the requested amount of rocket fuel. I place the loaded rocket on the launch rail beside my back door and retire inside... there is of course a big red button to press. The recipient should get their parcel in about 5 minutes...
-- pocmloc, Jan 21 2010


Supply drops are widely-known-to-exist but this is an interesting new variant.

[+]
-- 8th of 7, Jan 21 2010


Already Half-baked in the book _Rainbows End_ by Vernor Vinge in the form of Up/EX launchers...

The gov't would never let this happen for obvious reasons...but cool idea
-- cowtamer, Jan 21 2010


[QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ], war zones, especially ones with lots of collateral damage, often are suburbs.
-- pocmloc, Jan 21 2010


"And what if it missed its target, or got misdelivered to the wrong address without a net to keep it from through the roof, or landed on your dog? Collateral damage and accidental casualties are a lot more acceptable in a war zone than a suburb."

It would home in on an IR beacon, attached to a net, it might get delivered to a wrong house but only one with a target device. wrong shipping addresses happen all the time. nothing new there.

in terms of missing? well unlike a real bomb, the mass and velocity would be as low as possible. If it is still possible to get the accuracy, a drogue shoot of some kind could be used.

Also a lot of the misses in actual guided muntions come from the fact that they are trying to fly in very fast in hostile territory and hit beyond the range of anti-air batteries. Parcel planes would have the luxury of flying low and slow.
-- metarinka, Jan 21 2010



random, halfbakery