Altitude Angel
 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/s...ries-20d5vbsz0

Sky ‘corridor’ to enable mass drone deliveries

The world’s first commercial “flight corridor” for drones will be established by the end of the year, paving the way for airborne parcel delivery services.

The Times has learnt that a five-mile long aerial highway will be created south of Reading, Berkshire, that will allow drones to be operated beyond a pilot’s line of sight, a manoeuvre usually banned under existing regulations.

The corridor, a third of a mile wide, will be monitored by a new air traffic control system for small unmanned devices. The system will feed automated instructions to drones to ensure they maintain a safe distance from others in the area or change their flight path to avoid a collision. It will operate in normal airspace shared with conventional aircraft including helicopters, light aircraft and commercial jets.

Subject to approval from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) it is expected to be active by next year and would be the first large-scale trial of its kind.

Altitude Angel, an aviation technology company based in Reading, said that drones flying in the controlled area could be used to deliver small parcels, carry medical supplies, blood or tissue samples and survey infrastructure.

Their technology will remove a barrier that prevents the mass deployment of drones. At present drones have to be flown within a pilot’s visual range, typically up to 1,600ft. They also have to observe a maximum altitude of 400ft to avoid aircraft and must keep away from built-up areas. Drone flights beyond line of sight are allowed only in specific cases.

However, the Altitude Angel system will create a corridor that monitors drones at all times and allows them to be freely flown. Masts installed within the corridor will use radar and multiple tracking sensors to create the air traffic control system. Drones will be registered with the company, allowing them to be tracked and monitored. The platform will automatically keep drones apart and detect those at risk of a collision. Instructions such as “change flight path, hold, return or land” will be sent via the drone operator. The system will intervene if the request is not followed.

Other drones not registered with the system but still operating within the zone will be mapped and monitored, alongside other aircraft, with co-ordinates fed to the “compliant” drones to ensure they avoid collision. Initially two drones will use the zone simultaneously to test the system, travelling in either direction on a linear “motorway”. Numbers will be gradually increased to ultimately create four drone lanes in either direction and two or three highways at different altitudes.

The trial would run indefinitely, the company said, before the system was expanded across the country. The CAA is assessing its application to run the Reading trial and the company expects to get approval soon.

Richard Parker, founder and chief executive of Altitude Angel, said: “The size of this step cannot be underestimated. Beyond visual line of sight automated flight in unrestricted airspace is a very significant barrier to overcome in order to realise the vision of mass-commercial drone usage.”

Company announcement: 'Arrow Drone Zone' will enable automated drones and general aviation to harmoniously co-exist in a real-world environment

Unless the manned aircraft in and around the corridor are also controlled they remain mere random movers. I presume therefore that this will be yet another airspace restriction to contend with in southern England hot on the heels of Southend, Farnborough, Oxford, Brize etc etc. The restrictions, cockpit workload and risk factors for GA continue to mushroom and are yet another nail in the coffin of GA and those whose livelihoods depend on it. But at least Amazon can deliver your goods even faster

Based on the Times article and the company's website, I don't think that's the case.

Who is going to be held responsible if one of these drones collides with a GA aircraft?

Would be interesting to see how a mass of drones cope with manoeuvring around the envelopes of a balloon festival.

Not just GA, as the report makes clear:

Heat map of LHR arrival flightpaths when operating on easterlies. One hopes the maximum drone operating altitude will take this into account:


https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....725b4a5dc8.jpg

To rephrase my question. When one of these drones loses its control link, as it inevitably will, who is legally responsible for any collision and consequences?
Presumably they will be programmed to RTB on loss of link, but they will still be out of control on the way back.

Are they preprogrammed and flying on a fixed route or could somebody interfere with bad guidance commands in flight and redirect or jam them somehow?

Can someone explain to me the point of a "corridor " ? Surely drones are only useful if they can fly to the final destination, which is anywhere if you are talking about Amazon-type deliveries. It would be totally pointless to fly along a corridor to drop something, if it then has to be transported on from that point.

Sallyann1234

You could turn the question around and ask whether - for the first time ever AFAIK - a GA flyer, or come to that a commercial pilot, is going to be expected to see and avoid a drone and be held responsible for the consequences of a failure to do so.

Assuming the answer to that is "No", then which party or parties does that leave ?

Anyone else feel that mass drone delivery won’t be popular? One small drone (DJI, for example) is noisy enough for people over a wide area to look up, and be annoyed by it. Hundreds of large commercial drones? That’s going to be awful

Exactly, people will not tolerate these things buzzing overhead all day. I can think of one country where someone will inevitably bring out their shotgun and take some unfriendly action.

It would reduce the number of 'white vans' on the roads. What it would do for employment is a scary thought.

Tartiflette Fan

This is a trial permitted by the CAA to assess the practicality and safety of the system, so necessarily limited to one area.
If it proves successful the operator will not doubt want it extended to more general areas. How it could work over e.g. London with airport flight paths and frequent helicopter operations is anybody's guess. But that's where the greatest demand is for parcel deliveries.

I'd guess they'd use the same system as the new Garmin get you home software - broadcast to ATC if they lose the link

Is there really anything that needs to be delivered that quickly? Organs for transplantation or emergency drugs perhaps, but this? I don't get it.

c52

I imagine the drones will require a hefty amount of maintenance if done at any scale.

Anti Skid On

Yes, it's a mistake to assume that it's going to take lots of multi-drop white vans off the road.

But medical supplies to remote or over-the-water locations, perhaps - q.v. the recent Isle of Wight trials.

Well, I don't know if that will mean more masts, or whether the equipment can be co-located with telephony-masts, but neither will be particularly popular. If you combine this with the very irritating drone noise, then I foresee major resistance. I much prefer the notion of having parcel-stations where you can recover your item from a luggage-locker with a code transmitted by the courrier company. There will undoubtedly be lots of available spaces everywhere now for purchase.

No way would they have thought of it. Only you are capable of realising that there's a massive tract of land with lots of planes on it near Heathrow. And that where there are lots of planes that they might take off and land. These drones will be operating so high that they will probably interfere with the orbit of the moon

I have some experience working with zipline in Rwanda who use drones to deliver blood and urgent medical supplies, I can try to comment on some of these comments

• These drones (with a 1Kg payload) fly a few 100' up and cannot be heard (or easily seen) from the ground. This so-called 'lower airspace' is a key resource that I predict governments will be looking to exploit.
• That's below pretty much all manned aviation, except around airfields of course
• Zipline use corridors, which are pre-agreed flightpaths, but there's lots of them, to 100's of hospitals/clinics and they are very tightly defined. There is a failsafe whereby the drone shuts down and parachutes itself to the ground if it finds itself out of the corridor. I believe that has never actually happened except in demo.
• They fly a pre-determined route, but ATC is aware of them and can (and regularly does) ask them to hold station by orbiting if there is a chance of conflict.
• Rwanda/blood is an extremely good use case - it's a small but very hilly country with poor roads and blood has a short half life but can save can save a life. They aim to have the blood in the air within 20 minutes of the request and a typical outward flight is 20 minutes. So 40 minutes vs up to 24 hours by road.
• I agree the use case for my Amazon order may not be so compelling

Whatever our personal preferences for click and collect etc, it is worth knowing that Amazon has a corporate goal (according to the head of their drone programme) of 30 minutes from click to drop. Other large internet retailers will be looking at similar targets. The environmental lobby (and the Government) will also be interested in UAV emissions (noise and energy consumption) compared with the outputs from the multiple diesel vehicles currently delivering to your doorstep. It is going to happen, and it is a question of how, not when.

It is very tempting to view all this through a current ATC-driven lens, which is what we know, but what is being developed is a completely different system, much to the disgust of the ATCOs. It will not require positive (active) human control because these platforms are designed to self-separate within a UTC environment. The technology for that is rapidly maturing and this trial appears to be part of the process. As for the masts, I gather some of them could be the size of a bee-hive, other terminals might be using existing 4G and 5G masts, assuming the anti-vaxxers and Covid-denial crew don't burn them down.

I would be very surprised if the CAA would allow a trial if it was thought that there was an increased risk to other airspace users, especially CAT. Exactly how 'detect and avoid' will operate isn't clear from the statements - hopefully we will get to find out soon.

We ( ATC) have been involved since the outset on the UTM systems and always have advocated for segregated airspace , which is basically what these corridors are .Basically as long as they keep away from airports and stay outside controlled airspace we are fine with the concept.
But the drone delivery problems are elsewhere :
The first problem lies in the mental conception of people not familiar with aviation that there is nobody below 500ft while the reality is different .. Helicopters and UL gyrocopters use that airspace regularly as well as hot air balloons and others larger aircraft like fire fighters aircraft ( think Canadairs picking up water on lakes and rivers ) and the standard concept of see and avoid does not work with drones.
The second problem is noise. It is extremely annoying with the current quadro copters . The Australia experiment ( Camberra last year ) is worth reading and had led the company ( Wings) to stop the experiment while the regulator is thinking what to do next .
The 3rd is public acceptance: In remote regions , or scarcely populated areas there is probably a real benefit for drone deliver for high value items (e.g. medicines, electronics, etc..) where a 30 min delivery is versus 3-5 days by road ,and there people acceptance might be high . , however in dense populated areas and suburbs, the noise factor and privacy concerns will be a huge issue to resolve .

Last , Bezos was promising Amazon Prime drone deliveries in 2013 already to happen within 2 years everywhere on the globe .We are now 7 years later and it is still for tomorrow... :E

Interesting Lawsuit in the works
 

Gliders do occasionally land in farmers' fields.

I am waiting for the legal fallout from the first glider collision with a drone:E

That said there is work afoot to have Flarm capability in drones so that Flarm equipped gliders can detect them.

Yes forgot to add gliders making out of airfield landings , I should know I fly them every week during Summer :O
On Flarm , first it is not a certified system , cannot be due the frequencies it uses, so cannot be mandated ( dixit EASA) but secondly what can you do at 100 Km/h or more against a drone ? The drone has to avoid you , not the other way around. The detect and avoid technology must (and will) be in the drone .

I don't think the proposed concept can really be described as "segregated airspace".

It's more akin to what the CAA describe as "Non-segregated BVLOS".

In their words: "a technical capability which is equivalent to the ability of a pilot of a manned aircraft uses [sic] to ‘see and avoid’ potential conflictions - this is referred to as a Detect and Avoid (DAA) capability".

All of a sudden it’s deemed safe to fly aircraft (unmanned) at low altitude in the proximity of people and structures, interesting.

Another thought...if the drones are low-flying, they're going to be susceptible to bird strikes throughout the flight. Can they be fitted with sensors and firmware for 'see and avoid' WRT birds? Airliners can usually survive birdstrikes, and perform a controlled emergency landing where necessary. What are the likely effects of birdstrikes on drone engines/motors and overall structure?

So, the question to be asked is: Where shall this end.

If the scenario is indeed parcel delivery, hazard to other man made airborne equipment will be of minor interest, I postulate.
Due to the amount of traffic needed and its closenes to human settelments other issues will dominate:
- Environmental issues like noise and hazards to biological air traffic participants - large (birds) or small (insects).
- Hazard to persons and property on ground due to failure of equipment or collisions with above.
As small as the failure probability might be, the sheer amount of drones needed will make this a relevant factor.

So basically two scenarios are possible:
This will remain an application for a small niche (like the one DB pointed out) - a peaecful coexistence with GA might be possible, but better not buy stock of any startup.
This shall become a replacement for the white, yellow and brown vans - for noise and environmental protection these things must fly much higher and GA traffic will be displaced from lower airspace.

So we GA pilots must fight it.

Yes, the results of being hit with at least a couple of kilos falling from 100-200 feet, with possibly high-speed sharp rotors on the corners are likely to be pretty severe or fatal;

To quote from #22 about the trial in Rwanda,
One would hope this to be an essential requirement of any trial over populated areas.

I would not want have one crash landing on me or my car or my roof - even if the parachute works. 2kg @ 1500fpm is still quite like a brick thrown at you.

There has been already such accidents : one in France last year , still investigated by the BEA : Camera drone over a 200.000 crowd music event . Drone malfunction message, pilot lost control on recovery ,fell on crowd , 2 persons injured ,No parachute on that one .
https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-dive...19-8126028.php

One would think so , another good question for our Altitude Angel friend here .

Does anyone else perceive a hidden motive, flying pilotless passenger aircraft in drone corridors and then reimaging GA airspace for that purpose ?

Given that that's the stated object of the exercise, it's hardly a "hidden motive".

Sallyann1234

In Rwanda this failsafe mode is fine due to what I would consider low population densities enroute. In downtown Basingrad, it is not so much, since, once under the parachute, the vehicle is not controllable. There are plenty of companies out there operating SUAVs without parachute fail safes under approved safety cases.

The parachute as a failsafe has its place but is only one part of a solution.

Absolutely agree, the parachute can only be one partial mitigation. And from my point of view flying a SEP in the same airspace, a drone hanging from a parachute is actually a bigger hazard.

I don’t get drones, they are useful for short duration photography, they could drop things over a short range but duration is too short to go much beyond the boundary of an average town. When it returns to the parcels base in that town for a reloading and battery change, it all sounds complicated to me and as for transplantation organs there is usually no great rush as they are packed in ice and a motorcycle outrider deliver quickly.

Commercial drones are going to be regulated for airworthiness and could be quite expensive to operate compared to delivery vans, Amazon pay less than £1 to deliver a parcel in the U.K. hard to see a saving.

Sallyann1234

But only briefly!

And anyway, your SEP will never normally be below a drone flightpath, so from an aircraft conflict point of view it seems like a good solution. Probably not so good when it crashes through your conservatory though.