UK

Researchers at the UK’s Imperial College London have created a prototype drone specially designed to withstand intense heat, and which through continued development may be produced as a vital data gathering tool for firefighters to minimize risk factors in various blaze-battling scenarios.

A UK drone pilot has been fined nearly $4,500 for an illegal flight that, among many other consequences, forced a money-time professional soccer match to be halted after the craft hovered low over players.

The state organization tasked with managing and maintaining England’s network of major roadways, National Highway, has introduced a new drone flight management system to facilitate access and operation of pilots wanting to fly UAVs near principal ground transport arteries.

Specialized drone services company sees.ai has obtained what it describes as unprecedented authorization to conduct routine beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) inspections of live overhead electricity infrastructure in the UK.

Telecom company BT Group has released new research indicating the UK needs to take steps to catch up with other nations currently leaving it behind in terms of drone operation and service readiness – a somewhat counterintuitive finding given the nation’s innovative aerial efforts over the past couple of years.

Israel-based hydrogen-powered UAV developer HevenDrones is keeping a very close eye on work in the UK toward creating a 165-mile “drone superhighway,” which is intended to enable a broadening range and rate of aerial activity and services across a huge swath of the nation. Although it is not yet involved in what are the still preliminary stages of that British project, HevenDrones CEO Bentzion Levinson says he believes the program’s potential for rapidly, radically transforming UAV systems, regulations, operation, and tech – including power sources like hydrogen permitting far longer flights – is enormous, and something he’d be keen to join when the time is right.

Officials in the UK are again demonstrating their willingness – indeed eagerness – to lead the way in adopting a widening array of drone applications with the deployment of UAVs by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) to improve traffic management.

As expected, this weekend’s coronation of King Charles II provided all the pomp and star-studded entertainment organizers had promised, and wrapped up with the crescendo Sunday evening of drone shows over Windsor Castle and in cities across the UK.

Fans of UAV tourism and event videography will find their aerial ambitions confounded in London this weekend with flight restrictions related to the coronation of King Charles III grounding all drone and small plane flights below 2,500 feet in the British capital.

A trial program overseen by the UK’s Skyports Drone Services in Scotland is in the running for a national award for its efforts in pioneering UAV transport of meals to remote Highland schools.

The drone unit of the Devon and Cornwall Police department has begun using DJI craft to combat dangerous driving in what they call the first use of UAVs for road safety enforcement in England or Wales.

In a development that will please pilots sick of being harassed by drone-hating antagonists, a man in the UK now awaits sentencing for having brandished a gun while accosting a real estate agent doing aerial work near his home.

UK aerial surveying specialist Plowman Craven has produced a drone data collection solution specifically designed for owners and operators of rail networks across the nation and globe – including lines where physical access to infrastructure isn’t feasible.

When DroneDJ last visited Phil James in 2021, the former police officer had focused his passion for piloting drones into looking for lost dogs in his Nottinghamshire, UK, homebase and reuniting them with their owners – work that by April of that year had resulting in 47 of those happy endings. Cut to March 2023, and James’s aerial efforts have increased that joyful total to nearly 1,400.

A UK drone pilot has been slapped with a hefty fine and a suspended prison sentence for having flown his UAV during a historic airshow event last July, during which it came dangerously close to a rare World War II-era Royal Air Force plane as it passed.

A group of next-generation UK aviation tech companies and associated organizations have released a white paper urging the government and national regulators to move quickly to create rules enabling effective integration of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights by drones and other craft into the airspace, and unleashing their full potential economic contributions that risk being undermined if such activity is held back.

A new series of trials is set to begin in the UK today using drones to transport patient samples, medicines, and other materials between healthcare facilities – a specialized form of UAV deployment that’s swiftly multiplying around the globe.

UK telecoms company BT is testing a powerful new antenna technology that, once mounted on a high-altitude platform station (HAPS) drone, is expected to provide 4G and 5G services of up to 150 Mbps over areas as large as 15,000 square kilometers.

The drone services division of UK delivery and vertiport company Skyports has announced it will be integrating the heavy payload electric vertical takeoff and landing UAVs by manufacturer Pyka into its fleet, thereby considerably expanding the goods its craft can haul in a single flight.

Another phase of drone development activity has been initiated in the UK, with the Open Skies Cornwall program assembling nearly a dozen partners to test use cases and recruit additional participants to facilitate regular UAV services along the southwest England peninsula.

Hooligans used to be the biggest risk to people attending professional soccer matches in England, but a growing concern these days is possible frostbite while waiting for games to resume after being suspended by drones flying in the stadium.