Skyports, Robotic Skies partnership hints at liftoff for drone ops

Drone delivery Skyports has made another move toward pushing drones into the mainstream by partnering with Robotic Skies, an unmanned aircraft service and maintenance provider, after conducting successful beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) trials in rural Scotland. While both companies are startups, Skyports has raised more than 6 million pounds ($7.8 million) over two rounds of funding, and Robotic Skies is receiving support from Boeing HorizonX Ventures, Boeing’s investment capital arm. The partnership between the startups will grant Skyports access to Robotic Skies’ expanding network of service centers, positioning the drone logistics company to operate in more than 40 countries. Robotic Skies positions its service centers to operate alongside existing certified aircraft maintenance facilities, creating drone infrastructure in places where there’s already proven demand for airfreight operations. According to Brad Hayden, founder and CEO of Robotic Skies, the drone maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) space is currently undergoing rapid change as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operators phase out consumer-grade craft and begin to rely on “mission-specific” craft instead. “These larger systems are not expendable, and they need to be maintained and repaired more like traditional aircraft,” Hayden said. The problem for the drone MRO space has been that existing maintenance options — sending the drone back to the factory for repairs, for instance — are inadequate. Operators like Skyports require specialized care for their craft, which Robotic Skies will be able to provide at its more than 200 service centers around the world. However, the partnership goes beyond MRO services. The two will work together to develop a maintenance regime specifically tailored to Skyports’ craft, and train technicians to operate its tech, including at Skyports-owned urban vertiports, according to Alex Brown, head of operations at Skyports. “We will be working with Robotic Skies to determine how best and most efficiently we provide these maintenance services so they can be universally applicable and beneficial to all vehicle configurations,” Brown said. Skyports has stated that its projects and partnerships all serve a larger goal: pushing drones into the mainstream, specifically, making it legal and safe to operate them BVLOS in nonsegregated airspace. The partnership comes shortly after Skyports proved that drones are capable of filling the gaps in the traditional airfreight network by delivering COVID relief supplies to the rural region of Argyll and Bute in Scotland. “The results from the weeklong proof of concept have been very positive,” said Brown. “We have shared lots of flight and operations data with the CAA [Central Aviation Authority] to help inform future regulatory developments regarding UAS BVLOS and drone delivery operations.” Skyports already has another trial on the horizon for September that will bring COVID relief to Scottish communities. “This project, a funded joint initiative between the U.K. Space Agency and European Space Agency, will see Skyports serving more health care facilities and transporting a wider range of medical products on more routes,” said Brown. “Skyports has ambitious plans to achieve permanent commercial drone delivery operations at scale across multiple countries in the coming years,” Brown said. “We plan to commence permanent recurring drone delivery operations in the U.K. from 2021.” The key factor in legitimizing BVLOS drones, he added, is ensuring the craft are maintained at the highest possible standard.

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