NOVEMBER 2019
Covid-19 has given a
relatively new type of
aircraft a chance to
flourish in an era of social
distancing and in places
where the disease has
disrupted the delivery of supplies.
With varying degrees of
efficacy, aerial drones have been
used during the pandemic to
spray disinfectant, broadcast
messages to disperse crowds,
monitor people’s temperatures
and deliver medical supplies.
Indeed, with ferry services
to the Isle of Wight curtailed,
Solent Transport, Southampton
University and Windracers
embarked on a project to fly
medical supplies to St Marys
Hospital on the island with a
drone.
The Windracers ULTRA
(Unmanned Low-cost TRAnsport)
UAV, capable of carrying 100kg but
laden with loads of up to 40kg,
completed the flight to the island
on May 9 from Solent Airport,
Hants, in 13 minutes.
In Scotland, UK drone delivery
provider Skyports partnered
with Thales SOARIZON to deliver
COVID-19 test kits and PPE
between two hospitals 10 miles
apart in the Scottish Highlands.
Before COVID-19 the deliveries
would have been undertaken on
road and at sea, with a one-way
journey taking as long as six
hours. The two-week trial showed
how deliveries could be fulfilled
in 15 minutes.
“Drones have certainly
proved their worth during
the coronavrius pandemic,
highlighting the advantages of
remote operations, and this could
pave the way for an expansion of
drone use, including deliveries,”
said James Willoughby, Drone
Air race Drones rise to the challenge of battling COVID-19
Content Executive at Heliguy, a
North-Shields based supplier of
drones and drone pilot training.
Prior to COVID-19 and the
grounding of airlines globally,
the UK government had made
electrification and more
environmentally modes of flight
key facets of its 2018 Aerospace
Sector Deal. Part of the sector
deal included investment of up
to £125m into the Future Flight
Challenge, which was set up to
support the development of new
technologies, including freightcarrying
drones.
The projects in Scotland and
on the Isle of Wight demonstrated
that drones could operate beyond
visual line of sight (BVLOS),
which is a key requirement if
drones are to operate in nonsegregated
airspace, a factor
crucial to opening up routes,
plus the frequency and range of
services that drones can provide.
July 2020 / www.theengineer.co.uk 10
This fact was not been lost on
the Future Flight Challenge,
and the financial gains could be
considerable.
According to Willoughby,
the Drone Delivery Report by
Research and Markets estimates
that the global drone market will
grow to over $43bn in 2024, with
drone deliveries being the fastest
growing application method
within that market.
“There are many
opportunities for last-mile
delivery,” said Dr Paul Cureton,
a drone pilot, senior lecturer in
design at Lancaster University,
and author of Drone Futures.
“However, there are several
hurdles such as sustainability,
public perception, integration
and a lesser discussed area;
adaptability of existing housing
stock and the urban fabric.”
Echoing this point,
Willoughby said that drone
THE GLOBAL DRONE MARKET WILL GROW TO OVER
$43BN IN 2024, WITH DRONE DELIVERIES BEING THE
FASTEST GROWING APPLICATION IN THAT MARKET
ubiquity would have to be
accompanied with infrastructure
changes that would make
charging and fuelling stations a
common sight, particularly if the
so-called drone-in-a-box solution
is used on a wider scale.
“This solution enables
autonomous deployment from
a box that also functions as
a landing pad and charging
base,” he said. “Aside from
infrastructure, further work is
needed to figure out how drones
can safely share the airspace with
manned aviation.”
Skyports attributes much
of its recent success to Casia,
a Detect & Avoid Technology
developed by San-Franciscobased
Iris Automation that allows
enables a drone to act as if it had a
pilot on board.
According to Willoughby,
a number of DJI drone models
are fitted with DJI’s AirSense
technology. This alert system
uses ADS-B signals (Automatic
dependent surveillance–
broadcast) from nearby airplanes
and helicopters to warn drone
pilots if they appear to be on a
collision course.
“This technology is still in
its infancy, relatively speaking,
and it does have its limits, but
further work in this department
could really improve the harmony
between manned and unmanned
aviation.”
“Drone range will certainly
increase, and drone swarm AI
sensing and BVLOS would be the
next incremental development,”
said Dr Cureton. “The damage to
the aviation sector by COVID-19
and the pressure on R&D is
horrific, but we can think again
about opportunities in lower
airspace.”
News analysis
WRITTEN BY JASON FORD
/www.theengineer.co.uk