Amazon’s drone delivery service, Prime Air, was a pet project of founder Jeff Bezos, who laid out his plans for the service more than a decade ago.
Amazon and six other organisations have been selected to take part in a trial looking at expanding the use of drones in the UK.
The country’s Civil Aviation Authority, or CAA, announced that the experiment will involve integrating drones that fly beyond the visual line of sight of their operators into UK airspace. This means that operators will not have to maintain sight of the drones.
These flights use advanced technologies for navigation, control and to detect other aircraft, the CCA said.
Projects that provide services for remote infrastructure such as offshore windfarms, inspections over the North Sea, and delivering emergency medical supplies, are among those included in the trial.
“Our goal is to make drone operations beyond visual line of sight a safe and everyday reality, contributing to the modernisation of UK airspace and the incorporation of new technology into our skies,” said Sophie O’Sullivan, Director of Future of Flight at the UK CCA.
The trial will gather data on how the drones detect and avoid other aircraft, and the electronic signals that can be sent to make them visible to other airspace users and air traffic control.
The flights “have the potential to transform how we deliver goods and provide services, particularly in less well-connected regions,” said Simon Masters, Future Flight Challenge Deputy Director at UK Research and Innovation. He added that the program is key for CCA’s wider Airspace Modernisation Strategy which is focused on making UK airspace fit for purpose in the future.
Amazon’s drone delivery service, Prime Air, was a pet project of founder Jeff Bezos, who laid out his plans for the service more than a decade ago.
The ecommerce giant said in October last year that its customers in the UK and Italy would have the option to get their packages delivered by a drone from late 2024. The company does not currently have permission to operate drones in the UK.
“It’s crucial for operators like us to have clear regulatory requirements in order to bring and scale new technologies, such as drone delivery, to customers in the UK,” said David Carbon, Vice President and General Manager of Amazon Prime Air. “We appreciate the CAA’s effort to partner with us to help bring clarity to the regulations that support commercial drone delivery.”
Prime Air has already launched in the US for packages weighing up to five pounds in College Station, Texas and Lockeford, California. But the expansion of the program has faced regulatory hurdles, delays and the departure of some executives.
The service also faces competition from Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, and Walmart, which partnered with Zipline for drone deliveries.
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