This year we have made significant strides towards developing NATS OpenAir as the UK-wide digital data infrastructure to enable the safe and efficient integration of crewed and uncrewed aircraft in shared airspace. The next step will see us working with Airways New Zealand.

This month’s episode of Altitude, recorded on the floor of the DroneX conference in London, was about moving from innovation to integration — how drones are changing the way we live in exciting ways along, together with and a desire to see an acceleration away from trials towards more routine operations.

For the past seven years Aberdeen has been at the forefront of our work to enable safe beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations in segregated airspace. What has happened so far – and what are the future plans?

This isn’t about replacing helicopters with uncrewed aircraft. It’s about widening the spectrum, building a toolbox where each instrument has its role. The EC135 helicopters: fast, agile, able to drop into a scene in minutes. The uncrewed aircraft: quieter, cleaner, able to stay aloft for hours at a time.

Project AMEC has directly helped inform the development of our Concepts of Operation (CONOPs), enabling us to understand how we would integrate a large number of eVTOLs – and other new airspace users – into UK airspace.

Now the results are in from the recent consultation on NATS OpenAir, we are moving into the next phase of our project aimed at designing a digital data backbone to pave the way to an integrated UK airspace of the future.

For the current Caelus flights, we are trialling a different use of airspace to ensure it is robust enough to withstand the traffic of today as well as that of the future. This time around, we are incorporating a Temporary Segregated Area (TSA), which means Aberdeen airport can use the airspace safely and flexibly while minimising possible disruption to traditional traffic.  

With the accelerating growth of the uncrewed and advanced air mobility sectors, the global aviation landscape is poised for significant change. More and more new and diverse airspace users are lining up for access to our skies, supported by a multitude of air traffic service providers.

If you knew where to look in the skies above London last month, you’d have seen history in the making. For the first time, drones were being flown Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) in the heart of the city and inside them, a precious payload of urgent blood samples for the NHS.

The latest Project CAELUS test flights have given us another chance to validate our Concept of Operations for uncrewed flight.