Amazon's plans for widespread, mainstream drone delivery are — please forgive me — up in the air. Still, the company continues to tantalize news media with demonstrations — here's the Verge on their first drone delivery trial in December, years after the idea was first teased — and the latest is CNN Money's report on the e-commerce company filing a patent for a "a method to guide packages released from drones safely to the ground" with, it looks like, tiny parachutes.

CNN points to the credible details of the patent application, which attempts to claim the idea of an "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) to launch a package during flight." Here's the rendering:

As the future becomes increasingly less certain and stretches out before us like a barren wasteland, I do sorta see the potential utility in dropping supplies — food, medicine and the like — from drones. You know, sort of like Amazon Prime meets humanitarian aid airdrops.

Still, at least one cheeky bloke writing for the UK Guardian thinks this is all hot air. "Buying ads is expensive," he writes. "But filing sci-fi patents for drones is cheap — and gets acres of publicity."

Meanwhile, no word back from the patent office on my semi-automatic t-shirt canon application. Will keep everyone posted.

Related: Amazon Patents Floating Blimp Warehouse For Drone Deliveries