Amazon and 6 other organisations have been chosen to participate in a trial investigating the expansion of drone use within the UK.
The country’s Civil Aviation Authority, or CAA, announced It was announced on Thursday that the experiment will involve integrating drones into UK airspace beyond the road of sight of their operators, meaning operators is not going to have to regulate the drones.
These flights would use sophisticated technologies for navigation, control and detection of other aircraft, the CCA said.
Projects included within the trial include those providing services to distant infrastructure akin to offshore wind farms, inspections over the North Sea or the delivery of emergency medical supplies.
“Our aim is to make beyond-line-of-sight drone operations a safe and everyday reality, helping to modernise UK airspace and integrate new technologies into our skies,” said Sophie O'Sullivan, Director of the Future of Aviation on the UK CCA.
The trial will collect data on how the drones detect and avoid other aircraft, in addition to what electronic signals may be sent to make them visible to other airspace users and air traffic control.
The flights “have the potential to transform the way we deliver goods and provide services, particularly in less well-connected regions,” said Simon Masters, deputy director of the Future Flight Challenge at UK Research and Innovation. He added that the programme was a key a part of the CCA's wider airspace modernisation strategy, which goals to make UK airspace fit for the long run.
Amazon's drone delivery service Prime Air was a pet project of founder Jeff Bezos, who outlined his plans for the service greater than a decade ago.
The e-commerce giant said in October last 12 months that its customers within the UK and Italy would give you the option to have their packages delivered by drone from the tip of 2024. The company doesn’t currently have permission to operate drones within the UK.
“It is critical for operators like us to have clear regulatory requirements to bring and scale new technologies like drone deliveries to customers in the UK,” said David Carbon, Vice President and General Manager of Amazon Prime Air. “We appreciate the CAA’s efforts to work with us to bring clarity to the regulations that support commercial drone deliveries.”
Prime Air has already launched within the U.S. in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California, for packages weighing as much as 5 kilos (2.3 kilograms), however the expansion of this system has faced regulatory hurdles, delays and the departure of some executives.
Last 12 months, a big variety of Prime Air employees were laid off within the US, the biggest layoff in the corporate's history. The service also competes with Wing, a subsidiary of Google's parent company. alphabetAnd Walmart which partners with Zipline for drone deliveries.
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