The Big Green Egg Company has announced that it has successfully tested a supercapacity unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), more commonly known as a commercial drone, with the ability to enable the company to offer same-day home delivery of the new MiniMax EGG by August 2014. The Green Egg rapid-delivery system (GERDS) has passed numerous safety tests and has successfully lifted the new MiniMax EGG and transported it safely to various delivery locations.

The GERDS uses a groundbreaking technology based on the same autorotational safety system used in commercial helicopters to prevent any possibility of the UAV’s reaching the ground in an uncontrolled fashion (should any mechanical problem occur). In addition, the GERDS incorporates a kineticenergy– recovery system—modeled on that of the Ferrari Grand Prix race car—that allows mechanical and heat energy, usually wasted during descent, to be converted into electrical energy.

In another technical innovation, the GERDS power-storage system is based on a new process (in development at the University of California–Los Angeles and at Vanderbilt University) that incorporates a rapid-charging supercapacitor made with silicon chips and graphene. Not only is graphene environmentally benign, but it is biodegradable and compostable, and it has shown the potential to charge and store more electricity rapidly than standard batteries can—a necessity due to the weight of the MiniMax EGG.

Marco Bogazzi, Big Green Egg’s director of technical innovation, says, “We began working on this concept about a year ago, and when we saw other companies making statements about their efforts to offer unmanned deliveries, we thought we’d better step up our efforts. It is important for us to maintain our category-leading position as the most innovative and creative manufacturer of outdoor-cooking products, and this is just another step forward in our evolution.”