UK set to have world's biggest automated drone superhighway

Image source, BT

Within the next two years, the UK will be home to the world's largest automated drones.

The Skyway will connect towns and cities with the use of drones.

The funding package for the sector will be announced by the Business Secretary on Monday.

Mail and medication can be delivered via drones to the Isles ofScilly.

The first airshow of the year is going to be held in July.

The funding will help the sector seize on the opportunities that exist as the world transitions to cleaner forms of flight.

Skyway is about scaling up trials that have been taking place around the UK.

One of the partners isBT.

"This capability has existed for quite some time, but is in its infancy in terms of being actually part of our society and being a useful application," he said.

This is a big step towards that point for us. It will open up a lot of opportunities.

Skynet wants to connect the airspace above Reading, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge, Coventry and Rugby by the year 2024).

The funding will be used for projects relating to integrated aviation systems and new vehicle technologies.

The plan to use drones to deliver mail and medicine to the Isles ofScilly is one of the projects.

Chris Forster is the chief operating officer of aviation technology company Altitude Angel.

There is a real demand to have access to this airspace, whether it be a business doing logistics, all the way to the police and medical deliveries of vaccines and blood samples.

The road infrastructure in Africa was not good for ground vehicles and the delivery of vaccines was provided by automated drones.

A real-time view of where drones are in the airspace is provided by the technology.

This data is analysed by a traffic management system, which helps drones navigate their routes and avoid crashes.

The biggest concern regarding crashes is not when the drones are in the air, but during take-off or landing.

He said it was about the first and final part of the flight. What happens when you're 10 feet away from people? I worry about that a lot.

It's stable when it's in the air and won't hit something.

The people are looking at the packages being lowered from the air. A lot of bright people are working on flight plans that avoid built up areas.

The project is working with theCAA to ensure safety.

He said that the way they work is evidence based. Nothing happens without the regulators actually signing it off.

All of these future flight projects include theCAA. It is a part of all of the activities to make sure they are safe.

People are more likely to accept a drone if they know it is important.

Simon Jude is a lecturer at Cranfield University. You're likely to be more accepting of the noise if it's an emergency medical support.

What happens if you have a lot of drones collecting and saving data at the same time?

I live in a rural location and it might annoy me more than if I lived in a city where there's a lot of noise.