'Drone Superhighway' to Be Built in the UK
The UK government has approved the development of a "drone superhighway" that will connect several cities and towns to the west and north of London, including Reading, Oxford, Cambridge and Coventry.
While drones usually need a human pilot, the planned "Skyway" will have a network of ground-based sensors that will track drones' movement while a traffic management system guides them to their destinations.
According to Altitude Angel, one of the companies involved in the project, this will not only reduce the need for human pilots, but will also make it unnecessary for each drone to have its own sensors to avoid collisions, allowing them to be lighter so they can carry more weight and travel farther.
The 265-kilometer network of drone highways will be the world's largest, Altitude Angel says.
Construction is expected to last until mid-2024.
Chris Forster, chief operating officer of Altitude Angel, told the BBC that Skyway will have many possible uses.
"Whether it be a business doing logistics, all the way to the police and medical deliveries of vaccines and blood samples, there's a real demand to have access to this airspace," he said.
Richard Parker, CEO and founder of Altitude Angel, said in a statement that Skyway could change the transportation of goods in a way similar to the introduction of railways in the 18th century.
The project is one of several supported by about $325 million in government and industry funding, of which the Skyway project will receive over $15 million.
Other projects to be funded include using drones to deliver medical supplies across Scotland, and using them to deliver mail to residents on the Isles of Scilly, a group of islands off the southwest coast of England.
