Windracers has begun a new drone delivery trial on the remote islands of Orkney. The trial will take place over 90 days between the islands of Eday, Westray and North Ronaldsay using Windracers’ Ultra self-flying cargo aircraft.
Ultra is capable of carrying a payload of 100 kg up to 1000 km, and is designed for safe operations even in the event of a hardware or software failure. Ultra will operate in segregated airspace, with the Civil Aviation Authority approving it for autonomous flight within a number of temporary danger areas for the duration of the trial. Windracers expects to complete over 2000km of flights over the course of the trial.
The trial is part of the Sustainable Aviation Test Environment, which is the UK’s first operationally based low-carbon aviation test centre, based at Kirkwall Airport on Orkney.
The company previously trialled scheduled, autonomous flights for two weeks between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands with Royal Mail in October 2021.
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