A TAKE-AWAY could be on your doorstep in just three minutes, according to a new Irish drone delivery company.
People in Dublin could be the first to get their pizza or curry delivered by air, with plans for drones to spread their wings across Ireland within months.
Manna is pledging a 'three minute or less' delivery from restaurant to door, with residents in south Dublin among the first to avail of the service when it launches on March 9.
The ambitious plans will see food deliveries made using custom-built drones.
But while the company has plans to roll out the service across Ireland later in the year, it remained unclear last night if it will be available in Northern Ireland.
On its website, Manna said it uses custom-developed aerospace grade drones to "deliver directly from restaurants and centralised kitchens to consumers' homes".
"We fly at an altitude of 80 metres and a speed of over 80kph - delivering within a 2km radius in less than three minutes," it states.
"Our 'Manna-festo' is to completely replace road-based delivery - reducing delivery times to a fraction of their current times, greatly improving the consumer experience of food delivery and saving lives as we take the dangerous process of road-based delivery into the skies."
The Dublin-based company has said it has investigated concerns around privacy, noise pollution and validating use of airspace.
It is expected that Manna will provide and manage the drones, which will be docked at a restaurant or central location where multiple eateries in an area can access it.
It is understood the firm hopes to have a fleet of 100 drones in the air by the end of the year.
Manna chief executive Bobby Healy told Newstalk: "Our data tells us that we're safer than general aviation.
"We'll be flying 10 to a hundred times more flights than the largest airline in the world - so we have to be hundreds of times safer than anyone who flies in aircraft.
"2020 for us is going to be about showing everyone in Ireland what it looks like, and bragging to the world that Ireland are the first to do it properly."
Mr Healy also said there are also plans to launch the drone delivery service in the United States, but they believe Ireland is the "perfect" location for the initial roll-out.
