You heard of dial-a-pizza but this is drone-a-pizza

Famously the ungainly bird couldn't fly and became extinct - but Dodo Pizza chain have given wings to your Margherita and Pepperoni. In the northern Russian outpost of Syktyvkar, where football tycoon Roman Abramovich once lived, drones are delivering your favourite pizzas as soon as they're oven ready. 

Teaming up with 'Copter Express', the Russian pizza chain is delivering made-to-order meals to customers enjoying the light-through-the-night summer.

The drone hovers above parks or other party location or 'mass gathering', and the pizzas are lowered on a special cable. In this case, a Dodo representative in a uniform and hard hat was on hand to whisk the order into the hands of hungry customers at a city park. He was clutching an iPad with a mobile app to ensure the pizza got to the right customer who could see the check on screen, before paying by plastic card or cash.

Dodo claimed the first-ever pizza sales from drone deliveries, arguing that any previous examples were pure advertising gimmicks and 'staged commercials'. The company sees the drone deliveries as catching on at universities, beaches and parks. 

'The drone and the agent in the original outfit who receives the pizza box from the sky, create the effect of show in real time, and it attracts customers', said a Dodo representative. 

The service began on 21 June and six orders were delivered earning the company 3270 roubles or around $97.

Yulia Ignatova, 25, said: 'Syktyvkar became one step closer to Futurama today, hurray! I was there and ate pizza. The pizza was delivered in just 20 minutes, while usually it takes about an hour or even longer.' She ordered a classic pizza. 

She 'wanted to be among the first people to see with my own eyes the advanced technology coming into such an ordinary field, as pizza delivery'.

Another happy customer Alexey Burov, 24, said the new delivery system for his corn pizza was 'hi-tech and futuristic'.

'Pros are novelty, speed, good price, and the show it makes,' he said.

'Cons are that the mechanism of interaction with the customer - which now involves an extra person - is not properly tested, along with the security of the drone itself. This is a problem of the companies, but I should have a guarantee that I will receive my pizza in any case.'

The city is capital of Russia's Komi Republic which stretches above the Arctic Circle.