Public Funding for Windracers Limited

Windracers, Distributed Avionics, British Antarctic Survey, University of Bristol, The University of Sheffield, Helix Technologies and Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service are working together to develop a live demonstration for uncrewed aerial survey problems. The Windracers ULTRA uncrewed platform has undergone several trials where it was used to carry cargo for Royal Mail and the NHS. It is designed to carry 100kg payload over 1000km. It has been widely used to deliver medical supplies and medical equipment to the Isle of Wight in Hampshire, Scilly Isles in Cornwall and across the Orkney and Shetland Islands in Scotland. This proposal focuses on demonstrating how the Windracers ULTRA and Swarm technology can be used in applications that directly help us protect the environment. Swarm technology allowed for extensive coverage and at reduced survey time and human resource. We will demonstrate how Windracers' aircraft can be used to conduct survey missions. One of the main goals would be to show, with the help British Antarctic Survey, how the systems can gather environmental data in Antarctica as part of the project. Furthermore, we plan to demonstrate how the aircraft can be used to detect and locate wildfires, which builds on the research work conducted in our successful Future Flight 2 projects and support from the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service. For these operations to scale, the ULTRA platforms need to be operated in large numbers and in difficult environmental conditions. This raises several technological challenges, some of which are centred around navigation, situational awareness, resilience to failures and degraded performance states. In this project, the consortium partners aim to perform several live demonstrations of swarming UAVs for survey missions in Antarctica and fire detection in the UK.

Based at Kirkwall Airport in the Orkney Islands, the Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) is the UK's first low-carbon aviation test centre embedded at a commercial airport. SATE brings together an international consortium of industry partners, public sector bodies and academia who will work with a range of regional businesses and stakeholders to apply state-of-the-art aviation technology to deliver targeted economic growth. SATE's overarching objectives include: * Demonstrating the next generation of air services * Ensuring airports operations are ready to support sustainable aviation requirements * Improving regional connectivity * Supporting Scottish Government's ambition for a Highlands and Islands Net Zero Aviation region by 2040 SATE has already established itself at the forefront of future aviation. Recent successes include Ampaire demonstrating the first hybrid-electric flights in Scotland and Windracers trialling autonomous flights for delivering Royal Mail cargo between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay. These practical outcomes have raised the profile of SATE, putting the project on the global stage. SATE will now expand to create the UK Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Regional Aviation Systems, enabling pre-commercial demonstrations of novel aviation technologies with proven use cases to commercialise clean innovation in a real-world environment. Use cases will include: * Scheduled airline routes * Offshore energy services * National Health Service activities * Island / remote region deliveries * Environmental survey and inspection Implementation of these will require advances in technology, regulation, and policy. These are reflected in the cross-cutting activities which include: * Establishing a dedicated test environment airspace * Matchmaking technology to community and business needs * Accelerating technology innovation * Mapping out the future Highlands and Islands aviation system Kirkwall Airport is one of eleven airports operated by HIAL and an ideal test environment location due to the variety of operated routes (including short hops to inter-island airfields operated by Orkney Islands Council). The wider project team includes leading technology developers ZeroAvia, Windracers and FlareBright. EMEC brings expertise in green-hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, and HITRANS will lead on connectivity into the wider transport system. The socio-economic impact of a new regional-aviation system will be supported by UHI, Connected Places Catapult (CPC) and Aracadis. This project will also stimulate inward investment and supply chain growth which is a key responsibility for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). Project highlights will include working with the CAA to approve a regional sandbox airspace, establishment of a UAV hub-and-spoke delivery network, a first hydrogen-propelled regional-aircraft flight and an international demonstration flight to Norway.

Windracers, Distributed Avionics, British Antarctic Survey, University of Bristol, The University of Sheffield, Helix Technologies and Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service are working together to develop a live demonstration for uncrewed aerial survey problems. The Windracers ULTRA uncrewed platform has undergone several trials where it was used to carry cargo for Royal Mail and the NHS. It is designed to carry 100kg payload over 1000km. It has been widely used to deliver medical supplies and medical equipment to the Isle of Wight in Hampshire, Scilly Isles in Cornwall and across the Orkney and Shetland Islands in Scotland. This proposal focuses on demonstrating how the Windracers ULTRA and Swarm technology can be used in applications that directly help us protect the environment. Swarm technology allowed for extensive coverage and at reduced survey time and human resource. We will demonstrate how Windracers' aircraft can be used to conduct survey missions. One of the main goals would be to show, with the help British Antarctic Survey, how the systems can gather environmental data in Antarctica as part of the project. Furthermore, we plan to demonstrate how the aircraft can be used to detect and locate wildfires, which builds on the research work conducted in our successful Future Flight 2 projects and support from the Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service. For these operations to scale, the ULTRA platforms need to be operated in large numbers and in difficult environmental conditions. This raises several technological challenges, some of which are centred around navigation, situational awareness, resilience to failures and degraded performance states. In this project, the consortium partners aim to perform several live demonstrations of swarming UAVs for survey missions in Antarctica and fire detection in the UK.

Based at Kirkwall Airport in the Orkney Islands, the Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) is the UK's first low-carbon aviation test centre embedded at a commercial airport. SATE brings together an international consortium of industry partners, public sector bodies and academia who will work with a range of regional businesses and stakeholders to apply state-of-the-art aviation technology to deliver targeted economic growth. SATE's overarching objectives include: * Demonstrating the next generation of air services * Ensuring airports operations are ready to support sustainable aviation requirements * Improving regional connectivity * Supporting Scottish Government's ambition for a Highlands and Islands Net Zero Aviation region by 2040 SATE has already established itself at the forefront of future aviation. Recent successes include Ampaire demonstrating the first hybrid-electric flights in Scotland and Windracers trialling autonomous flights for delivering Royal Mail cargo between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay. These practical outcomes have raised the profile of SATE, putting the project on the global stage. SATE will now expand to create the UK Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Regional Aviation Systems, enabling pre-commercial demonstrations of novel aviation technologies with proven use cases to commercialise clean innovation in a real-world environment. Use cases will include: * Scheduled airline routes * Offshore energy services * National Health Service activities * Island / remote region deliveries * Environmental survey and inspection Implementation of these will require advances in technology, regulation, and policy. These are reflected in the cross-cutting activities which include: * Establishing a dedicated test environment airspace * Matchmaking technology to community and business needs * Accelerating technology innovation * Mapping out the future Highlands and Islands aviation system Kirkwall Airport is one of eleven airports operated by HIAL and an ideal test environment location due to the variety of operated routes (including short hops to inter-island airfields operated by Orkney Islands Council). The wider project team includes leading technology developers ZeroAvia, Windracers and FlareBright. EMEC brings expertise in green-hydrogen refuelling infrastructure, and HITRANS will lead on connectivity into the wider transport system. The socio-economic impact of a new regional-aviation system will be supported by UHI, Connected Places Catapult (CPC) and Aracadis. This project will also stimulate inward investment and supply chain growth which is a key responsibility for Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE). Project highlights will include working with the CAA to approve a regional sandbox airspace, establishment of a UAV hub-and-spoke delivery network, a first hydrogen-propelled regional-aircraft flight and an international demonstration flight to Norway.

Cuts to Isles of Scilly ferry and air services due to the on-going Covid-19 crises is hindering medical and other logistics services. Our consortia, led by DronePrep and supported by Windracers, University of Southampton and Consortiq propose to utilise the Windracers ULTRA UAV platform to deliver a range of payloads as required by the Council of the Isles of Scilly and Cornwall Council and Cornwall Council in response to time-critical Covid-19 challenges. In gleaning the support these partners they have jointly stated to our consortia that: 'One of the main challenges facing CIoS is that it is a rural peripheral region with dispersed communities. The ULTRA UAV provides a solution which could be used to connect remote communities across the region, enable NHS services to be delivered more effectively and overcome the limitations associated with traditional modes of transport.' Validated CIoS partners are supportive of offering their facilities for the test flights proposed. The Council of the Isles of Scilly operate St Mary's Airport, and Cornwall Council own and operate Cornwall Airport Newquay. The Isles of Scilly Council are responsible for Social Care/Care Home provision on the Islands and it is proposed that these trials will focus on trial delivery of essential items such as PPE and Covid-19 tests to those in a Care setting and potentially thereafter extend to supplement NHS supply chains should CLoS partners request and enable this thereafter. To achieve this we will be the first consortia to: 1) Demonstrate UAV capability in delivering supplies to the islands whilst comparing performance of this intervention to existing manned alternative 2) Explore the viability of securing multiple landing sites to allow dynamic and flexible goods transfer between islands 3) Work toward contributing to protocols research to test the transport Dangerous Goods via UAV Our consortium were informed on 31st July 2020 that this application (submitted in May 2020) had been successful at the technical assessment phase of the UKRI COVID-19 Open Call Innovate UK response competition and a funding award is due on 26th August 2020 which would facilitate the commencement of this project for a period of upto 4 months starting 2 September 2020\.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have the potential to become a reality for civil applications such as the transport of goods, aid delivery, or firefighting. The ULTRA unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Windracers is currently being tested to transport COVID-19 medical supplies to the Isle of Wight for example. It is a large, double engine, fix winged, drone with a carrying capacity of up to 100kg, making it a unique platform in the UAV market. For UAV solutions to scale, providers will need to deploy swarms that operate in large numbers, up to 100s. Swarm solutions build on the ability of UAVs to react to their local environment and neighbouring UAVs without having to coordinate through a central control station, making solutions more scalable to large numbers and robust to individual robot or ground station failure. This raises new challenges in the design of algorithms that coordinate the UAVs throughout their deployment, from refuelling and loading, to in-air navigation, and delivery of their payload (goods, aid, extinguishing agent). These algorithms need to be developed in realistic digital twin environments that are just one-click away from testing on board the actual UAVs, seamlessly switching between simulation and reality. Beyond the software, swarm deployments require new UAV hardware allowing for inter-robot coordination, and communication. This proposal focusses on enabling swarm deployments of the ULTRA UAV through the development of a digital twin that allows for single-click transfer of swarm controllers from simulation to reality. Two use cases will be developed centered around humanitarian aid delivery, and forest fire mitigation, as we expect both applications to require large numbers of UAVs to have a meaningful impact. By the end of the project we will demonstrate a proof-of-concept flight with 5 UAVs. In parallel, we will also work on new hardware for the ULTRAs to allow for inter-robot communication essential for swarming. This proposal brings together Windracers, the makers of the ULTRA fixed wing 100kg payload UAV, with Distributed Avionics, experts in avionics, ground station, and flight control software for the ULTRAs, and University of Bristol with expertise in swarm engineering.

This Orkney Island -based, innovative project will create the UK's first low-carbon aviation test environment, based at a licenced island airport with all year round scheduled air service operations to UK, and regular off-shore oil and gas helicopter traffic. The Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) will be a UK first and, should one or more of the new aviation technologies be adopted for island use, it will also help improve the quality of life of the communities it serves (through job creation, improved access to education and healthcare, etc.). The SATE will place the UK at the vanguard of the adoption of next-generation aircraft, and spearheading aviation's response to climate change. The continued demand for aviation services (air passenger numbers on the 11 HIAL airport network have increased by 33% in the last 10 years) , is at odds with the effects of an international climate emergency. We need to rapidly decarbonise the aviation sector to reconcile these competing imperatives and to reduce the carbon footprint of air travellers. Indeed, if aviation is to be used as a means to improve the quality of life and maintain or grow the population of remote and rural communities, then the options for the appropriate sustainable aviation technologies must be explored. The options include the following: * aircraft (with electric, hydrogen, or synthetic fuel replacing conventional fossil fuels), * changes to the physical airport infrastructure to support the adopted technologies, and transport to the airport * green energy supply for terminal buildings and ground operations, * necessary digital networks for resilient communication between airport and aircraft (particularly UAVs). Kirkwall Airport is one of an 11-airport, regional airport group, operated by **HIAL** - who are project lead -, and is particularly suited as a test environment location due to the variety of routes it offers which include: short hops to the inter- islands airfields, eg Westray - best known for being one of the two airports joined by the shortest scheduled flight in the world -, and operated by **Orkney Island Council.** In addition there are regular air services to Aberdeen, Edinburgh & Glasgow, with a summer service to Norway. The project team includes technology developers who will be test ready during the 18 months of this project phase: **Ampaire**, **ZeroAvia**, **Windracers**, **Flarebright** and **Loganair**. Orkney provides options to fly over water, in a challenging environment & climate, for real-world application testing of the technologies. Decarbonisation of the airport, as part of this project, is important to the Orkney community, which is an exemplar early-adopter for other low-carbon technology, and are leaders in decarbonisation, lead by one of the SATE project members, Orkney-based **EMEC**. This test environment offers a number of integrated energy-system opportunities providing significant wider impacts for potential adoption at other regional airports, which is a focus of team member **HITRANS**. The supply chain and future business opportunity interests are represented by Caithness-based battery manufacturers - **Denchi Group** and Orkney-based **Cloudnet ,**specialists in providing digital services for poorly served rural communities. The people skills necessary to support the development, testing and maintenance of the new technologies are of interest to project team members - **Air Training Services** and the **UHI**. If successful, this project should stimulate inward investment and local supply chain business opportunities in this remote part of the UK, a key responsibility for **Highlands & Islands Enterprise.** Local community acceptance of new aircraft technology, especially on lifeline services, and the potential impact on their local economy and wellbeing will also be measured, and a local community engagement programme is key to this projects success.

In order to deal with key challenges facing mankind, the future of aviation must change radically. Reduction of emissions, more electric aircraft, and autonomous systems are essential to meet these challenges. Autonomous drones will be increasingly used for commercial applications such as delivery of medicines, remote community logistics, and electric powered aircraft will be developed to reduce pollution and congestion in cities. SCAFFold will demonstrate how new autonomous technologies can meet and conform to existing well defined safety standards whilst exploiting the latest technology from neighbouring sectors. Advances from the consumer electronics sector (such as miniaturised sensing, more capable processors, advanced user interfaces) can then be safely and cost-effectively integrated within the flight control system. Manned aircraft are very reliable and provide the safest means of transport. This reliability is possible through the use of extremely rigorous quality control, which is very expensive. In order to achieve equivalent levels of safety but at significantly reduced cost, Distributed Avionics have developed a new network-based control system architecture with high levels of robustness, and therefore reliable, at low cost. Distributed Avionics' solution will be directly applicable to UAS, UAM, and Civil applications and will be a key enabling technology in the shift to all electric, more connected aircraft. The solution achieves this reliability improvement through a novel, patented Masterless control architecture which forms the backbone of a no single point of failure (SPoF) control system. The removal of SPoFs reduces the requirement for highly reliable individual components, which are expensive to produce and challenging to integrate and evolve. For cost sensitive aerospace applications such as UAS and UAM, this approach offers clear advantages, where traditional aerospace products are too expensive to form a sound economic use case.

The Windracers ULTRA UAV platform has been developed to move upto 100 kg of payload over 1,000 km, and can therefore support communities in the UK where existing NHS logistical links are challenging. Either due to islands separated from mainland transport infrastructure or remote locations due to topography.Existing transport links to the Isles of Scilly are constantly challenged by weather (high winds and fog / mists), variable demand and economic supply. With the addition of a UAV link, smaller urgent payloads can be economically and rapidly moved to and from the Isles, independent of existing transport modes. In particular there is a need to move NHS tests and samples off the Isles in a timely manner, and in particular, PPE and pharmaceuticals onto the Isles. This project will support the NHS and potentially save lives.