Royal Mail is to trial the use of drones to deliver health and safety equipment, Covid testing kits and other items to the Isles of Scilly.
The company said it will be first time an out-of-sight, autonomous scheduled drone flight has been used between the UK mainland and an island.
Part of the trial will also include inter-island parcel deliveries across the Scillies.
The Government-funded project, which has been developed in partnership with DronePrep, Skyports, Consortiq Limited, the University of Southampton, Excalibur Healthcare Services and Windracers Limited, will initially focus on delivering personal protective equipment (PPE) and testing kits to the islands’ most vulnerable and remote communities.
Ampaire to test hybrid-electric aircraft in UK
27th April 2021 9:52 Europe/London
Hybrid-electric aircraft developer Ampaire is to demonstrate its testbed aircraft in the UK in two locations: the Orkney Islands and Exeter in the south-west.
The demo flights are to show airlines how Ampaire’s hybrid-electric propulsion system could work on smaller, regional aircraft.
The first stop is the Orkney Islands in Scotland for participation this summer in what’s known as SATE – Sustainable Aviation Test Environment – a programme supported by the UK government’s Future Flight Challenge.
Ampaire’s ‘Electric EEL’ – a Cessna 337 upgraded to hybrid-electric power
Ampaire’s demo aircraft is a Cessna 337 which has power units in the nose and the tail. It has been prepared for the Scottish flights, over water between Wick and Kirkwall, with specially painted wingtips to represent the tartan pattern of Highlands and Island Airports Limited (HIAL), which oversees SATE.
UK enters race to permit wider use of drones for business activities
By Josh Lowe on 23/04/2021
Pilotless pilots: the UK’s new drone trials reflect tests being held by many other countries to explore their use by businesses. Picture by JESHOOTS.com via StockSnap
The UK’s aviation regulator has granted permission to a tech company to trial routine long-distance drone services, bringing another country into the global race to make drone use an everyday part of economic activity.
The move was announced by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on Tuesday. It will allow Sees.ai which operates drones at industrial sites for inspection, monitoring and maintenance to run so-called “Beyond Visual Line Of Sight” (BVLOS) services at three sites without pre-authorising each flight.
Tim Cooper investigates why only a handful of light aircraft are made in the UK pilotweb.aero - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from pilotweb.aero Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
6 April 2021
Dronecloud recently announced it was awarded a 5-year deal to provide Flight Management Systems (FMS) for Network Rail’s growing drone operation. The deal delivers safety and efficiency for the drone operations of today while paving the way for Network Rail to embrace the opportunities offered by future drone technology such as Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and Autonomous flight.
Dronecloud & Network Rail worked together to extend the rapidly expanding features within the Dronecloud platform to all drone users (commercial or recreational) planning to fly over or near the Network Rail Line infrastructure.
The output of this close collaboration is a simple to use digital flight approval process built in to Dronecloud.