Amazon says it will be opening a new drone research and development centre in Cambridge, England, later this year.

The online cash’n’carry said it would be hiring around 400 new folk, including machine learning and data scientists as well as the usual software engineers.

Other Amazon R&D staffers dotted around the UK will be concentrated on the new building, which will be located in the CB1 postcode of the university city.

“By the end of this year, we will have more than 1,500 innovation related roles here in Britain, working on everything from machine learning and drone technology to streaming video technology and Amazon Web Services,” said Amazon’s UK head honcho, Doug Gurr.

Back in December last year Amazon claimed it had allowed two lucky Cambridgeshire folk, including one definitely-not-hypothetical chap called “Richard B”, to order deliveries via drone. He was said to have got himself some popcorn and – what else – an Amazon Fire TV. ®