Amazon gives glimpse of new delivery drone design

Amazon provided a glimpse into the future of online shopping in a video of a new delivery drone that racked up more than two million views by mid-Monday.

A playful promotional video featuring British TV series Top Gear former host Jeremy Clarkson showed an Amazon quad-copter drone flying to the rescue with new football shoes in about 30 minutes to replace ones chewed up by a dog shortly before a match was due to begin.

The video, which indicated that the drone flight was real while the situation might be hypothetical, showed machinery at an Amazon warehouse lifting a package into the belly of a large drone that then took off vertically before flying airplane-style to its destination.

In the video posted on Sunday, the drone detects a clear portion of lawn, touches down just long enough to drop off its cargo and then takes off again.

The drone has a flying range of 15 miles (24 kilometers), and can fly as high as 400 feet (122 meters) above ground level, according to Amazon.

As the world's largest online retailer, Amazon raised eyebrows in late 2013 with its plan to airlift small parcels to customers by drone in select markets, less than 30 minutes after an order is received.