Drones are already being used by emergency services, delivery operators and infrastructure organisations, while work continues to make longer-range, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations more routine.
Host Russell Porter spoke to a line-up of people playing a significant role in this transformation: Andy Sage from NATS, Taryn Evans from the Metropolitan Police, Kevin Houston from Manna Air, Sofia Stayte from the Department for Transport, Praveen Raju from Wing, James de Beauvoir-Tupper from the CAA and Dave Pankhurst from BT, among others.
The technology is moving quickly
For emergency services, drones are already becoming part of a much broader operational capability.
Taryn Evans of the Metropolitan Police described a model in which different aircraft serve different needs. Small Drone First Responder platforms could quickly capture imagery at incidents such as road traffic collisions. Longer-endurance drones could provide support for hours or travel greater distances between forces. Crewed helicopters would remain available where required.
The same principle applies as commercial operations scale.
Scaling changes the problem
Operating a single drone is one thing. Operating multiple aircraft routinely and safely in increasingly busy airspace is another.
Wing’s Praveen Raju discussed multiple simultaneous operations, where one pilot controls several drones. Wing has secured UK approval for one pilot to operate up to four aircraft, while its US operations have gone considerably further.
“In the US, we’re actually operating one pilot to 80 drones,” he said. “That’s really allowing us to scale.”
The CAA’s James de Beauvoir-Tupper highlighted the human factors involved.
“Moving from one remote pilot to one aircraft, to a whole system of aircraft, a large fleet being operated by one person, has some real human factors implications,” he said. “We need to understand that.”
Automation may change the pilot’s role, but it does not remove the need for awareness, intervention and sound decision-making. Regulators therefore need to understand how those responsibilities evolve as operations become more complex.
“We need to really engage meaningfully with all of our stakeholders,” James said, “to understand how these policies are landing and how they’re working, so that we can iterate and improve them.”
The airspace has to evolve too
NATS’ Andy Sage identified uncrewed traffic management, or UTM, as a critical next step, particularly as demand grows in already busy areas such as London.
“The time has come now because the airspace, particularly in London, is already stretched and we need to be able to change the way we do things,” he said.
The ambition is not simply to place more drones in the sky. It is to create a framework in which services can operate routinely and predictably alongside other airspace users.
For operators, that means understanding where they can fly, what conditions they will encounter and how their aircraft will coexist with everything else using the airspace.
“More and more people are flying,” Andy said, “but they won’t continue to do so unless they can see a path towards repeatable, consistent, frictionless flying.”
Connectivity is part of the picture
Integrating drones is not solely an aviation challenge. It also involves data, cyber security telecommunications and physical infrastructure.
Dave Pankhurst of BT discussed the role connectivity could play as larger and faster aircraft, including eVTOLs, enter the market.
Network information could also help operators understand the environment in which they plan to fly. Data around communications coverage, population density and other conditions could support better planning and risk management.
Innovation needs a viable system around it
There is also a commercial reality.
Manna’s Kevin Houston argued that, for a delivery business, the aircraft is only one part of the equation.
“We’re air logisticians,” he said. “We’re taking a product from A to B. It’s not how the aircraft looks. It’s how efficient it is and what are the unit economics.”
A technically impressive aircraft does not automatically create a sustainable service. Operators must consider how frequently it can fly, how much each operation costs, what infrastructure it requires and whether demand is sufficient.
Safety remains the constant
Sofia Stayte from the Department for Transport described the UK’s regulatory environment as being among the “most advanced and stable for drone growth,” but stressed that progress could not come at any cost.
“Although safety needs to enable innovation, innovation cannot come at the cost of safety,” she said.
More aircraft and increasingly complex missions create more interactions, and the systems governing them must be robust enough to support growth.
Sofia’s ambition is for the UK to achieve routine BVLOS operations and then expand them nationally, enabling more local authorities to participate and building the safety evidence needed to support wider adoption.
The next step is integration
DroneX showed that proportionate regulation, resilient connectivity, trusted data and sustainable business models must surround the technology if it is to operate routinely and at scale. It will also require an airspace management system capable of accommodating new users while maintaining the safety and resilience on which aviation depends
You can watch the full episode of Altitude on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
