A Glasgow drone start-up has flown a long-range drone on a round trip of around 14km out over the open sea – entirely beyond its operator\u2019s line of sight – in one of only six projects chosen by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to make such long-distance flights routine.<\/p>\n
Airspection carried out the flights off the coast of Liverpool Bay, launching from the shore and operating the aircraft out towards a working offshore wind farm and back.<\/p>\n
Run as an innovation sandbox with UK Research and Innovation, the aim was to gather the safety evidence needed to integrate Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drones into UK airspace.<\/p>\n
For years, flying a drone beyond the pilot’s line of sight has meant securing one-off permissions and closing off the airspace. The CAA’s sandbox exists to change that, building the safety evidence needed to make routine, integrated BVLOS operations standard.<\/p>\n
Inspecting offshore infrastructure still currently means sending people and vessels out to sea, at significant cost, carbon and risk.<\/p>\n
Airspection’s drone is also built to do something most cannot: hover efficiently in strong wind. Inspired by the way a kestrel holds its position in a gale, it works with the wind rather than fighting it. In testing at wind speeds of 10 to 12 metres per second, the technology cut hover power consumption by around 40%; giving roughly two-thirds more flying time.<\/p>\n
The commercial case has been independently assessed by the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, whose analysis of reference UK wind farms found that drone inspection launched without a dedicated vessel could cut inspection costs substantially against conventional rope-access methods.<\/p>\n
The next step is to build towards routine inspection operations, initially targeting far offshore wind farms where conventional inspection is most difficult and costly. Longer term, Airspection is developing the technology towards turbine inspections without needing to stop them spinning.<\/p>\n
Matthew McLean, co-founder and managing director of Airspection, said: \u201cThis was about proving you can operate a drone offshore, beyond line of sight, launched from the shore rather than a boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can do that reliably, you take people out of a dangerous environment and cut the cost and emissions of getting them there. We proved it around offshore wind, but it applies to any remote infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ed Clay, head of technical strategy at the CAA, said: \u201cOffshore operations are a capability that can deliver real growth and positive outcomes from both a commercial, and safety perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe data and learnings provided by Airspection will help in the development of the UAS-supporting policies the CAA is developing through its Future of Flight Programme.\u201d<\/p>\n
Airspection was co-founded in 2022 by McLean, who studied aero-mechanical engineering at the University of Strathclyde. It has since been supported by programmes including the Net Zero Technology Centre’s TechX accelerator, the ORE Catapult’s Launch Academy Scotland, Scottish Enterprise’s CAN DO offshore wind innovation programme, Scottish EDGE, Strathclyde Inspire and the Smart Things Accelerator Centre.<\/p>\n
As well as offshore wind, the business is also\u00a0exploring other difficult-to-access, time-critical inspection markets – one example being post-storm railway route proving, where remotely deployed aircraft could help assess routes and get lines reopened faster.<\/p>\n
The Glasgow-based start-up is planning to start seed funding early next year to support commercialisation, product development and expansion<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":278857,"featured_media":8025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120780,50204],"coauthors":[137126],"class_list":["post-8024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","category-technology","tag-featured-story","tag-greater-glasgow"],"yoast_head":"\n