Droning on about flying pizza - again

This week the prospect of pizza by drone from store-to-door hit the headlines again - seven years years after a similar PR fly-by prompted stories insisting this was just around the corner for needy and greedy fast food fans. Meanwhile other drone delivery innovations already under way or in the pipeline don't seem to interest the media much.This week the prospect of pizza by drone from store-to-door hit the headlines again - seven years years after a similar PR fly-by prompted stories insisting it just around the corner for needy and greedy fast food fans. Meanwhile other drone delivery innovations already under way or in the pipeline don't seem to interest the media much."Yes, you read that right! Huntly will be the first place in Aotearoa to receive pizza and courier packages delivered by drone," the Waikato Times front page excitedly told readers on Wednesday - above a picture of a nifty white drone dangling a box on a string below it. "Piping hot pizza will soon be winging its way across the skies of Huntly, in a New Zealand first that's bound to bring a buzz to the north Waikato town," the paper said.That night TVNZ's Seven Sharp host Daniel Faitaua told TVNZ viewers "the impossible would become possible" and "slices of heaven" from Domino's would be descending on Huntly in "what's been touted as the way of the future" At the end of the report he was munching KFC from a bucket which said he had ordered by drone in a contrived visual gag that cracked up co-host Hilary Barry. RNZ's Morning Report was also convinced "hot pizza will soon be drone-delivered to doorsteps in the Waikato town.""Huntly will soon be buzzing with drones set to start delivering pizza by drones," host Corin Dann told listeners. "It feels a bit like the Jetsons," he said, while also questioning whether it would take off and noting driverless cars are not a thing on our streets just yet. The prospect of other greasy goodness from above excited his new co-host Ingrid Hipkiss. "Get KFC into it - then I'm on board," she told listeners.Yet when Waikato Times reporter Avina Vidyadharan actually asked Huntly-ites if they really were buzzed by the news, few were as excited as the media. One local said it would be of no use unless it delivered two dozen Waikato Draught in one go. Another said he'd shoot the drones down if they came near enough to him. But the hungry of Huntly with long memories won't be holding their breath anyway - because this wasn't the 'first' many media described. PR blast from the past…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details