UK tests airspace integration with Amazon, Everdrone and others

The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority has selected six pilot projects to test drone use in deliveries, infrastructure inspections and emergency services to help safely integrate drones into U.K. airspace.

[caption id="attachment_57144938" align="alignright" width="269"] (Courtesy/U.K. Civil Aviation Authority)[/caption] The six trials, which involve beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, aim to gather safety data, such as how drones detect and avoid other aircraft, and electronic signals that can make drones visible to other aircraft and air traffic control, according to an Aug. 5 release from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). This will ultimately inform drone policy development.

The six projects are:

A consumer drone delivery trial with Amazon Prime Air ; Offshore windfarm inspections with Airspection ; Drone use in policing with the National Police Air Service ; Inspections over the North Sea with NATS , which provides air traffic control at 15 U.K. airports and manages all U.K. upper airspace; Project SATE, or Sustainable Aviation Test Environment, with flights to the Orkney Islands; and Project LifeLine for medical deliveries. “By supporting projects ranging from consumer deliveries to critical infrastructure inspections, we are gathering essential data to shape future policies and regulations,” Sophie O’Sullivan , director of future of flight at the CAA, said in the release. “Our goal is to make drone operations beyond visual line of sight a safe and everyday reality, contributing to the modernization of U.K. airspace and the incorporation of new technology into our skies.”

Innovation sandbox The testing is being conducted in “innovation sandboxes,” controlled environments in which organizations can test and develop technology against the regulatory framework, according to the CAA. The BVLOS sandbox is part of a collaboration with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

Further permissions will be needed before the trials can begin, the CAA said. Drone integration into the U.K. airspace is part of the CAA’s Airspace Modernisation Strategy, which was updated in January 2023. The CAA published “Part 3: Deployment Plan” of the strategy in July.

The trial with Amazon involves delivering small packages to customers in less than one hour via drone, according to the CAA. Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.

In its trial, NATS will be working with the CAA, remote aviation services company Flylogix and others to introduce and evaluate BVLOS operations over the North Sea.

Project SATE Project SATE will develop a trial airspace test environment, the Trial Orkney Test Zone, where it will test integrated crewed and uncrewed aircraft operations from Kirkwall Airport (KOI). Highland and Islands Airports Ltd. (HIAL) will lead the project with self-flying aircraft company Windracers .

“HIAL will work in partnership with Windracers to deliver a live trial in the Orkney Islands to demonstrate the benefits to residents and local business of operating a regularly scheduled cargo delivery service using a heavy-lift autonomous cargo aircraft safely and efficiently.” — Jayne Golding, SATE manager at Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS) is the statutory regional transport partnership in Scotland covering the areas of Na h-Eileanan Siar, Highland, Moray, Orkney Islands, and Argyll and Bute.

The test zone will be designed to allow a wide range of uncrewed aircraft system platforms to conduct BVLOS trials and operations in unsegregated Class G airspace, according to the CAA. In Class G airspace, aircraft may fly without filing a flight plan to air traffic control. The project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of operating a drone hub-and-spoke route network within unsegregated airspace based on integrated operations from KOI to the Orkney Island Council airfields and other use cases located across the Orkney archipelago, the CAA said.

A hub-and-spoke cargo network is one in which there is a central hub, in this case KOI, and it transports cargo to multiple sites surrounding it.

“The trial ... could lead to the removal of the requirement for drones to operate within segregated airspace, moving towards integration of crewed and uncrewed aviation,” Jayne Golding , SATE manager at HITRANS, told Air Cargo Next .

Project LifeLine Project LifeLine will use drones to deliver medical equipment to the scenes of emergencies. The drones will also provide live video feeds of the scene to first responders en route, improving their situation awareness and decision-making.

[caption id="attachment_57144942" align="alignright" width="300"] An Everdrone drone transports a defibrillator to a patient in Sweden. (Courtesy/Everdrone)[/caption] The initiative is a collaboration of:

Air Ambulance Charity Kent Surrey Sussex ; Drone delivery company Everdrone ; Drone services platform Altitude Angel ; NATS ; and London Gatwick Airport (LGW). The Everdrone system has already been successfully employed in live operations across Sweden, according to the CAA release. The U.K. trial is to be conducted in both rural and urban areas in the Gatwick control-tower region, according to Everdrone Chief Executive Mats Sallstrom .

“Drones fill a unique niche: They can operate at low altitudes, making use of unexploited airspace, and they’re nimble enough to be deployed quickly and navigate in urban environments with very limited noise and visual pollution,” Sallstrom told Air Cargo Next.

“Drone delivery has the potential to revolutionize emergency health care by providing rapid, on-demand transport of critical supplies. This is particularly impactful in situations where every minute counts.” — Mats Sallstrom, CEO of Everdrone Everdrone’s fastest delivery to date, from alarm until putting a defibrillator on the ground outside the patient’s front door, was 2 minutes and 15 seconds, Sallstrom said.

The drone pilot program is now “integrated into Sweden’s emergency medical services in five locations, today reaching some 200,000 residents,” he said. “We have also had limited live operations in Denmark and performed various demonstrations in France, Finland and obviously the U.K.”

See how critical medical supply delivery works in this video from Everdrone:

[video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://cargofacts.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Everdrone-critical-medical-supply-delivery.mp4"][/video] “Safety and regulatory compliance are the two biggest challenges we face with drone delivery,” Sallstrom said. “The U.K. has strict aviation regulations, especially concerning BVLOS operations, which are essential for the scalability of drone delivery. Ensuring that our drones can safely navigate complex environments and avoid conflict with other aircraft is a top priority.”

Everdrone’s drones are equipped with obstacle detection and avoidance systems and the company is working with regulators to address any concerns, Sallstrom said.

UK tests airspace integration with Amazon, Everdrone and others

CAA ‘innovation sandboxes’ explore safe integration

SpiceJet plans 737-700F reactivation

IBC takes 5th Saab 340BF

Related Posts

Podcast: Merlin New Zealand sheds light on pathway to approval

AutoFlight, A2Z take lead roles in Alatau City AAM ecosystem

Merlin positions Merlin Pilot for 2027 approval in New Zealand

IBC takes 5th Saab 340BF

Cargo Facts Free Newsletters

Cargo Facts Connect Podcast

Follow Us

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password