Amazon.com Inc. has asked U.S. regulators for permission to fly their delivery drones for testing near Seattle. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said he wants to use the small aircrafts to deliver packages in under 30 minutes as part of the new "Prime Air."

The internet retailer is developing the unmanned drones that can fly up to 50 miles per hour. According to a letter sent to the Federal Aviation Administration from Amazon Thursday to test their drones outside one of their research and development labs near Seattle.

The letter stated Amazon tests would be held on the company's "private model airplane field, but with additional safeguards that go far beyond those that FAA has long‐held provide a sufficient level of safety for public model airplane fields."

Amazon's headquarters are in the state of Washington, where it can experiment with drones indoors, but will not be allowed to run research flight tests in outdoor spaces. Amazon is also allowed to conduct these tests in other countries, but said in the letter to the FAA that it would "prefer to keep the focus, jobs and investment of this important research and development initiative in the United States."

Amazon's head of global public policy, Paul Misener, wrote the letter, dated July 9, said the company has been making technological advances in the sophistication of the drones.

According to Forbes, Amazon has tested the capabilities of the aerial vehicles' agility, flight duration and speed. Prime Air drones are programmed with sense-and-avoid sensors that allow them to automatically avoid collisions in flight. The battery-powered drones can carry up to a five-pound cargo load, which is enough weight to deliver 86 percent of Amazon's products.

The company also wrote that if approved, it would rely on geofencing to keep the drones within the regulated 400 feet above ground level maximum. Geofencing is a software that defines boundaries of an area using radio frequencies, like a virtual electric fence.