One of the main impediments to the advent of a 3D transport network including passenger drones ferrying people efficiently through the air between the UK’s towns and cities is safety considerations. A collision between vehicles on busy roads is bad enough but one that took place in the air above especially urban areas would likely be even more catastrophic.
There would be little chance of anyone surviving the drop even if the impact from an airborne drone collision wasn’t fatal. And there would obviously be the potential for even worse collateral damage caused by wreckage dropping out of the sky.
The flight of the kind of large drones currently being developed with a view to the launch of commercial ‘air taxi’ services in the next decade or so will clearly have to be regulated to at least the extent of earth-bound traffic. But how do you regulate traffic unconfined to any route? For an ‘air traffic code’ to have any meaning, ‘roads’ will have to be established.
The first serious discussions are now taking place around drone corridors in the skies above the UK that would look something like a non-physical railway network. And the first “drone superhighway” in the world proposed for the UK.
Last November a government advisory committee reported on the potential for the UK to become a global leader in drone technology. The report championed
“a real opportunity for the UK to assume a global technology lead on drones, but, more significantly, . . . put the right regulatory framework in place that becomes the standard across the world “.
Last week Richard Parker, founder and chief executive of Altitude Angel, a start-up that is designing air traffic control software it hopes with help keep drone-filled skies safe, said he is convinced the UK has “the skills and ambition to open our skies to safe and secure drone and air-taxi flights “.
The regulator of air traffic in the UK, the Civil Aviation Authority, has so far remained cautious on the possibility of commercial air taxi services. However, it has recently begun to approve a small number of limited “sandbox” trials. One such approval was last year given to Sees.ai, a West Sussex-based drone company, which was allowed to begin operating drone flights beyond the pilot’s line of sight at three UK locations. Current UK drone laws oblige pilots to always be able to see the vehicle they are controlling.
Altitude Angel has also been busy testing its “detect and avoid” (DAA) technology in a five-mile zone near Reading in which it is permitted to. And it hopes to secure government permission within weeks for a much more ambitious project – a network of “drone superhighways” linking towns in the Midlands with the south-east of England, as well as running along the south coast over 165 miles.
Altitude has named the initiative, to be funded by a consortium it is leading, “Project Skyway”. It will involve 29 air control towers along the superhighways to relay information from drone sensors back to air traffic management systems. The plan is to piggyback on BT’s cellular network with backup provided by Inmarsat satellite communications.
Mr Parker comments:
“We want to make the UK the first place in the world to have a regulated, open access, fair and efficient system for fully automated, beyond line-of-sight flight. What an amazing thing that would be.”
“All we need now is the government to say: ‘Right, we want this transport capability’,” said the chief of Altitude Angel, which is also working with the Netherlands on a system.
“It’s kind of a race, but given our heart is here in the UK, we hope it takes advantage and we get off the ground here first.”
Altitude hope to get the green light next week before the end of the month with a view to deploying infrastructure by autumn and having certified flights by next spring. It will be some time before the system might be used for passenger drones but drones carrying loads for delivery, like blood samples between NHS labs or light commercial goods could be initiated by around this time next year.