Flying robots delivering the mail may not be as good as jetpacks but they're still pretty futuristic – Scotsman comment

The name of Scottish indie rock band We Were Promised Jetpacks expresses a disappointment that the promises of the past about a bright new future have not been kept, a sense of loss for what might have been.

It was taken from a podcast by comedian Ricky Gervais, the band revealed, although the actual quote was “we were promised hovercrafts” – they chose jetpacks because they thought it “sounded cooler”.

And it’s fair to say that some of the wilder predictions of shows like the BBC's Tomorrow’s World – such as the widespread use of paper pants, floating bicycles, and a culinary craze for worms – have not come to pass. At least, not yet.

However, even though the idea that flying robots would deliver the mail would have seemed far-fetched not so very long ago, Royal Mail is now planning to launch a fleet of drones to make deliveries on 50 new routes over the next three years. Shetland, Orkney and the Hebrides will see some of the first of the new services.

This is, to a degree, a case of back to the future. For, in 1934, a German engineer called Gerhard Zucker made two unsuccessful attempts to deliver mail by rocket between the islands of Scarp and Harris. A pile of scorched envelopes can still be seen in the island’s museum, testimony to a shattered dream and unfulfilled promise.

However, nearly 90 years later, while most of us still don’t have jetpacks or hovercrafts, mail is about to start being delivered in a most futuristic way.