Monaco drone startup delivers luxury goods to super yacht partiers – then admits it

In an application that fails to qualify – by several time zones – for the vaunted “drones for good” category, a startup in Monaco has celebrated its maiden mission of delivering a luxury payload, including Champagne worth several hundred dollars, to an offshore luxury super yacht.

With vision that only mega yacht owner Jeff Bezos could love (and a limited, lavishly loaded few could afford), Monaco startup MC Click feted its “first luxury drone delivery at sea” on its Instagram page – though remained mum about the arguably perspective-skewed exploit on its company webpage. 

To its credit (or at least mitigated castigation), MC Click is primarily involved in aerial activities less objectionable than using UAVs to make the easy life of the filthy rich even easier (and, some might argue, filthier). 

According to its site, the Monegasque startup also provides drone show performances, takes truly eye-opening aerial photos for commercial clients, and is developing its MC One personal aircraft similar to the Jetson One commuter craft.

That was not, however, the aspect of its business MC Click celebrated in a video showing its hefty-lifting quadcopter alight on the Coral Ocean anchored off Monaco. According to one report, the drone delivered a $440 bottle of 2008 Dom Pérignon Champagne worth $440 and a can of caviar to Beautiful People seen in the video applauding its arrival abord the 73-meter (240-foot) mega-yacht that recently underwent a €35 million ($37 million) restoration.

Surprisingly, the company did not include any shots of Bernie Sanders or Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid the crowd cheering the .01% deployment of UAV tech.

For those whose socio-economic sensibilities (and more grounded perspectives) blanche at such activity, the positive news is the offshore delivery of luxury goods was described as a one-off effort. It was, moreover, conceived and underwritten by mostly non-drone companies that specialize in waiting hand-and-foot on people who never deign to use either. 

The bad news is that one-off was a successful proof-of-concept trial backed by Monegasque aviation authorities. Following approval by regulars, it may be replicated by regular, on-demand drone deliveries of up to 40 kilos of luxury items to yachts.

Given Monaco’s own reputation as an offshore tax haven home for the shirking mega-wealthy of the planet, meanwhile, it doesn’t take a great deal of creativity to imagine the service running at full steam in coming months.

Worse yet, it could expand from there. 

According to reports, use of drones to deliver loot most people can’t afford to those who can’t bear to go without it (or move themselves to obtain it) could be expanded to yachts located up to 50 miles at sea. 

If that happens, the world can expect to hear the echoing of an executive of one of the companies that backed the trial – an enterprise DroneDJ chooses not name in this post – hailing the new application as (we swear) an “environmentally conscious” way of provisioning the unspeakably rich at play.

Image: Karl Greif/Unsplash