After years of fanfare the future of drone delivery in Australia remains up in the air

Experts question economic case and point to environmental costs such as packaging, risks to birds and the noise factor

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In 2013, Jeff Bezos announced Amazon was developing a drone delivery service. He estimated at the time that air-dropped packages were four, five years" away. Nearly a decade later, the service is promised to begin by the end of this year - albeit in only two locations in the US.

According to David Carbon, an Australian expat and vice-president of the firm's drone delivery division, Amazon wants to deliver 500m packages annually by drone from 2030. Carbon told AAP earlier this month that the firm was planning a wider rollout for air deliveries in the US and potentially Australia.