Pie in the Sky: Unmanned Flying Drones Delivering Pizza in Russia

A restaurant in Russia has launched the country's first ever pizza delivery service using unmanned flying helicopter drones.

DoDo Pizza, located in Syktyvkarsk, the capital city of the Komi republic, launched the new service on Saturday, drawing much applause from people who watched the drone deliver a pizza within half an hour to a man standing in the city's main square.

The tiny eight-rotor octocopters, provided by Russian firm CopterExpress, are able to deliver up to 5kg of weight at speeds of up to 40km/hr.

Mounted with cameras and built-in GPS, the drones enable the restaurant manager to monitor the journey and delivery.

Customers order their pizzas on the phone or on the internet, and then pay online, as the drone cannot yet accept card payments.

When the drone reaches the customer's door, the manager calls the customer to come outside to accept the delivery, so that the pizza doesn't fall into the wrong hands, and the pizza is lowered to the ground using a cable.

In order to stop people from trying to steal the drone, the drone hovers 20 metres above the ground. If someone tries to tug on the cable, it triggers an emergency mechanism releasing the cable, and the drone will fly away

DoDo Pizza is quite tech-savvy and even offers a live web-cam feed showing its staff making the pizzas in real-time. If it cannot deliver your pizza within 60 minutes, the pizza is free for the customer.

It is however, only the second pizzeria in the world to offer drone deliveries – the first is Francesco's Pizza in Mumbai, India, which started pizza deliveries by drone in May.

At the time Mumbai city police were not convinced that the restaurant had asked permission from civil aviation authorities and intended to investigate.

It is not clear whether DoDo Pizza has received permission, but Russia has long been a big fan of flying drones, and is expected to spend around $13 billion (£7.6bn) on the unmanned aerial devices by 2020, according to Wired.