The shipping service began trials this week in rural Massachusetts. A test flight on Thursday carried a package from Beverly, a town north of Boston, to Children's Island. It was handled by local drone maker CyPhy, in which UPS owns a stake. Though the FAA passed restrictions on "non-hobbyist" drone use at the end of August, the shipping company will appeal for exceptions to those rules, including one limiting flight to line-of-sight.

As for the concept of delivering medical supplies via drones? A US start-up has been ferrying blood and vaccines in Rwanda since July, which UPS announced it was financially backing in May.