Royal Mail delivers two U.K. firsts with autonomous drone deliveries Royal Mail Press Release | May 10, 2021
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Royal Mail has announced a trial of the first out-of-sight, autonomous scheduled drone flights between the U.K .mainland and an island. The trial will see the company use uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) flights to deliver personal protective equipment (PPE), Covid testing kits and other mail to the Isles of Scilly.
The Skyports drone on The Isles of Scilly. Chris Gorman for Royal Mail Photo
Royal Mail has also become the first to execute inter-island parcel deliveries across the Scillies, as part of the trial.
Is the UK funding a green revolution? flightglobal.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from flightglobal.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
29 January 2021
Experts from the University of Bristol are among a UK-wide consortium that is pushing the boundaries of drone development and aviation capabilities.
The consortium of 16 entities, led by specialist drone command and control solution developer, sees.ai, and including aviation, aerospace and industry giants BAE Systems, NATS and Sellafield, has won a share of £30 million to develop and test a remotely operated drone system for industrial and urban environments.
The futuristic system will enable remote inspection and monitoring of industrial sites such as nuclear, construction and oil and gas, as well as urban sites in the public domain including road and rail and telecoms infrastructure, and live emergency services support.
Earlier this year Cadillac revealed a concept for a quadcopter drone-like flying car at CES. But it’s not the only one who is exploring flying cars, as well as the necessary infrastructure.
Hyundai and the UK government are actually partnering with Urban Air Port to launch the world’s first “hub for future electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft.”
According to Hyundai’s press release, the hub, which is being called “Air-One,” will launch later this year. It sounds like that will mean some demonstration runs will be run from the hub (which is in Coventry) to show how much less traffic there would be if we were all flying.