Orkney to Become Sustainable Aviation Test Environment
Written by AZoCleantechJan 20 2021
Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) has embarked on a £3.7 million project to develop a sustainable aviation programme that could transform short flight travel between remote communities.
Scale of Flarebright Snapshot aerial camera 1 (Credit FlareBright)
Part funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, the SATE (Sustainable Aviation Test Environment) project will create the UK s first operationally-based, low-carbon aviation test centre at HIAL’s Kirkwall Airport in the Orkney Islands.
Launched as part of UKRI’s Future Flight Challenge which supports the development of greener ways to fly, the project will operate for an 18 month period.
LONDON, UK. and GLASGOW, SCOTLAND – January 20, 2021 – ANRA Technologies, a leader in integrated airspace management, today announced its participation in the CAELUS project, a consortium led by AGS Airports that will develop and trial the UK’s first national distribution network using drones to transport essential medicines, blood, organs, and other medical supplies throughout Scotland.
The AGS led consortium, which brings together 13 organisations, successfully secured £1.5 million from the UK Industrial Strategy Future Flight Challenge Fund to demonstrate how autonomous drone technology can enhance access to essential medical supplies, particularly in rural parts of Scotland.
The CAELUS (Care & Equity – Healthcare Logistics UAS Scotland) project started on 1 December and will involve live drone flight trials. In addition to developing the ground infrastructure needed to recharge the drones and the systems to control them while flying, a key aspect of the project will be
15 January 2021
The ability to fly connected drones “beyond visual line of sight” on automated missions could transform many business operations, experts believe.
Today, if you want to inspect a building site or other installation with a drone you need a pilot standing nearby to keep an eye on the craft at all times and control it over a radio connection.
But, according to John McKenna, chief executive of
sees.ai, a tech company working on how drones can be operated remotely using artificial intelligence, this means that a pilot “has to drive to the site, go through a health and safety induction before flying, and then after flying, pack up and drive back to the office.”