Public Funding for Skyfarer Ltd

In a UK first operation, Skyfarer have demonstrated night time and day time Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) medical delivery capability in hub centric middle mile supply chains for the NHS. A trial sponsored by a commercial medical courier based in London and run in partnership with University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire Trust, the 4 month total operation was able to show that drones are a beneficial tool for supply chains that can remove carbon emissions, deliver with speed, and do this all year round and at any time of day, even in complex airspace. The use cases demonstrated in this proof of concept included PPE, pathology and implant logistics requiring a low class Dangerous Goods approval. This project endeavors to augment healthcare logistics and improve supply chain resilience in specialist radiopharma supply and prove this in a dedicated cost benefit analysis comparing a drone solution to conventional methods of transportation. Additionally this project will enable the development of policy aims including improving prevention, as is the focus of Nuclear Medicine in Radiology. This will make use of the latest capability in drone technology for logistics, a drone released this year and that achieved its debut trial in the UK flying BVLOS from Skyfarer's West Midlands Hub, to Rugby and Coventry hospitals. It brings the capability of carrying larger payloads up to 90 liters in volume and 15kg in mass over a distance of up to 130km. With support from University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust and Siemens Healthcare, this project will engage with key stakeholders and end users of a drone delivery service for radiopharmaceuticals. The project sets out to demonstrate and understand Safe Operating Procedures for ground handling and Dangerous Goods carriage of radiopharma in a new compliant packaging solution for drones. We will understand and develop on a clear route to market, by identifying local and national supply chain requirements, processes and costs in the UK. This will enable a deployment plan that is initially local and then scaled nationally for SOPs, Dangerous Goods operator authorisation and compliant packaging to be utilised alongside new upcoming distribution requirements from new radiopharma manufacturing facilities in the UK. With Viking Packaging, the project will also demonstrate feasibility of a drone based Nuclear Medicine supply chain innovation with new packaging for a new use case of drone delivery, with new SOPs for a new level of DG approval.

Project Skyway is an ambitious plan to put Britain once again at the forefront of a transport revolution the likes of which it has not seen since the advent of the steam railway in the 18th century. Then, short lengths of track sprang up around the country allowing steam-powered locomotives to take coal from northern mines or wool and cotton from mill towns to near-by docks to be shipped around the world. But within just a few years those independent miles of track were part of a railway network which spanned the nation, allowing goods and people to travel distances in times hitherto unheard of. This transport revolution and the efficiencies it brought was key in Britain showing itself as an industrial powerhouse on a global scale for the next century. Two centuries on, Britain is on the point of another transport revolution. Drones have the potential to transport in a way our ancestors could never have imagined, but would have surely understood. Just as trains reduced transport times from days to hours, drones will reduce them from hours to minutes; using energy from renewable sources. This will allow efficient and timely inspection of roads and railways, airport and port operators to review infrastructure without dangerous or costly closures, and provide 'lanes' which will enable delivery drones operated by the likes of DHL, Amazon, and FedEx. And this is only the beginning. As the technology is proved through drone operations, more users and use cases will emerge. eVTOL vehicles, will be able to safely cross towns and cities whilst sharing the sky with other manned and unmanned aviation. This revolution has begun with the Arrow Drone Zone (ADZ), under FF2 'Project Xcelerate,' and serves as an important proving ground, providing a route to CAA certification. Using Arrow technology as its foundation -- allowing manned and unmanned aviation to share the sky harmoniously - Project Skyway envisages a nationwide network of ADZs spanning the length and breadth of Britain, a superhighway-network-in-the-sky, providing a critical digital infrastructure which will enable the world's first truly national, open and competitive drone economy. The project's collaborative approach brings together like-minded, future-focused businesses and organisations which are leaders in their specialist fields -- from drone manufacturers, mobile and satellite connectivity providers to fleet operators, sensor manufacturers and airspace managers - to help realise the vision and deliver it to the consortia's first customers.

Project Skyway is an ambitious plan to put Britain once again at the forefront of a transport revolution the likes of which it has not seen since the advent of the steam railway in the 18th century. Then, short lengths of track sprang up around the country allowing steam-powered locomotives to take coal from northern mines or wool and cotton from mill towns to near-by docks to be shipped around the world. But within just a few years those independent miles of track were part of a railway network which spanned the nation, allowing goods and people to travel distances in times hitherto unheard of. This transport revolution and the efficiencies it brought was key in Britain showing itself as an industrial powerhouse on a global scale for the next century. Two centuries on, Britain is on the point of another transport revolution. Drones have the potential to transport in a way our ancestors could never have imagined, but would have surely understood. Just as trains reduced transport times from days to hours, drones will reduce them from hours to minutes; using energy from renewable sources. This will allow efficient and timely inspection of roads and railways, airport and port operators to review infrastructure without dangerous or costly closures, and provide 'lanes' which will enable delivery drones operated by the likes of DHL, Amazon, and FedEx. And this is only the beginning. As the technology is proved through drone operations, more users and use cases will emerge. eVTOL vehicles, will be able to safely cross towns and cities whilst sharing the sky with other manned and unmanned aviation. This revolution has begun with the Arrow Drone Zone (ADZ), under FF2 'Project Xcelerate,' and serves as an important proving ground, providing a route to CAA certification. Using Arrow technology as its foundation -- allowing manned and unmanned aviation to share the sky harmoniously - Project Skyway envisages a nationwide network of ADZs spanning the length and breadth of Britain, a superhighway-network-in-the-sky, providing a critical digital infrastructure which will enable the world's first truly national, open and competitive drone economy. The project's collaborative approach brings together like-minded, future-focused businesses and organisations which are leaders in their specialist fields -- from drone manufacturers, mobile and satellite connectivity providers to fleet operators, sensor manufacturers and airspace managers - to help realise the vision and deliver it to the consortia's first customers.

The proposed Skyfarer project will move the adoption of drone solutions for logistics in the UK one step closer to reality, paving the way for this technology to be commercially viable, at home and abroad. Through the creation of a flight testing corridor in the Warwick/Coventry region, the project will make history by providing the UK's 1st drone based medical deliveries in a populated suburban environment within unsegregated airspace, heralding a new age of aerospace innovation that provides positive lasting impacts for us all in the short and long term. By setting up this flight testing corridor, we will enable testing of autonomous beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone technology with detect and avoid capabilities in a suburban setting, providing a sustainable blueprint for gaining CAA approval and paving the way for commercial deliveries by drones to begin in the UK. The framework for gaining CAA approval created in this project will allow us and our partners to begin implementing our vision of smarter supply chains powered by drones - enabling cost effective shared hospital inventories, Just In Time (JIT) deliveries of essential supplies, faster blood, sample-to-lab, vaccine and medicine deliveries. In the process, the project will also allow for final development and implementation of the Skyfarer eco-system and service platform, which facilitates the adoption of drones for logistics operations by providing a turn-key service that integrates all of the different systems into one (including the drones), while also navigating around the legislative barriers currently preventing drone based deliveries.

Imagine a world of autonomous Just In Time delivery with no impact on road congestion and no increase in fossil fuel emissions. The kind of delivery that can be carried out by a drone, fast and direct, applicable in any logistical application, from medicine to food, from organs to mobile phones. We have the technology to do this today. Although organisations, NGOs, charities and companies see great value in using drones for logistics, they don't yet have access. They can go out and buy a drone, but they can't fly it commercially for logistical operations in the UK. For this, not only does the drone need to be understood on a technical level, but it also requires specific systems and regulatory approval to operate within UK airspace commercially and autonomously. We have the solution, and with the support of this funding, it will be robust, simple, and accessible. Skyfarer's solution is a system of systems, neatly packaged into a robust operational process, leveraging the expertise and technology from our technical partners. It is a platform that allows any organisation to access an ecosystem of drones, to then be used in diverse logistical operations, safely, autonomously and cost effectively with very low capital investment. With this service, we can distribute medication, blood, test kits, food, digital devices and much more within a Just In Time operational framework with very low infrastructure. This project is a prerequisite for the commercialisation and utilisation of this system. By obtaining initial approval from the CAA to conduct a short-range flight demonstration, we will begin to showcase the capabilities that Skyfarer and our partners have amassed with drones for logistics. Along with a feasibility study and scoping exercise, this will validate and enable the next phase of work with the creation of a drone corridor, allowing us to develop and implement autonomous UAV logistics services to deliver essential supplies like medicine, vaccines or food without the need for a person driving. This will reduce trips that would usually require travel and face to face contact in congested areas. Long term, it provides a blueprint for UAV based logistics service to be tested and implemented in other areas of the UK (and abroad), paving the way for widespread adoption of the technology, and positioning the UK at the forefront of an exciting emerging industry that's poised for growth.