Over a period of 90 days, the ULTRA self-flying cargo drone will operate between the islands of Eday, Westray and North Ronaldsay, and is expected to complete 2,000 kilometres of autonomous flights during the trial.
The flights will integrate into existing logistics network including Streamline Shipping Group, which handles over 90% of last-mile deliveries in the Orkney and Shetland isles.
The trial is part of the Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) programme and part-funded by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Flight Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK and the Economic and Social Research Council.
The aim is to demonstrate that commercial drone services can transport meaningful payloads reliably, and are cost effective and sustainable for the benefit of communities in remote locations.
The ULTRA will operate in segregated space with Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approval to fly autonomously within a number of temporary danger areas (TDAs) for the 90-day period.
Longer-term, Windracers is looking at non-segregated operations with the set-up of Transponder Mandatory Zones (TMZs) so the system can see and be seen by other air traffic.
Simon Muderack, CEO Windracers, says, “We are delighted to have secured regulatory approval to operate our low-cost platform in UK airspace for this scheduled service trial. It is testament to our robust technology, processes and training procedures. We have worked extensively with the CAA and we see a clear pathway to operating a full commercial service in Orkney.”
The Windracer ULTRA can carry 100kg up to 1,000km and take off, fly and land safely without the need of a remote pilot due to its Masterless autopilot technology.
Its systems are duel or triple redundant so it can fly safely in the event of hardware or software failure.