UK splurges £4.4M on drones, e-planes, and other flights of fancy The British government is splashing several million pounds on next-gen aviation projects to advance the use of unmanned aircraft for applications such as cargo delivery and infrastructure monitoring, as well as potential electric-powered light aircraft carrying passengers. Detailed by the Department for Transport but paid out …
Certainly not at current technology levels - the VX4 has almost exactly the same speed as the H145 commonly used for the air ambo, but a quarter of the range and a longer refuel cycle.
As a city to city taxi I'd agree it makes more sense, it's quieter for one and the range isn't really important. But for something like Air Ambulance - you'll have longer flight times, shorter ranges, and a longer off-duty cycle as well as a much more restrictive payload.
I'm sure it'll get there, but it's a long way from "there" yet.
As a city to city taxi I'd agree it makes more sense
If you're travelling city-to-city, then use the train. We're spending good money on East-West Rail. One train carries 300-700 people. At a sensible service pattern like 4-5tph that's 3000 seats per hour in each direction. 300-700 air taxis would be... problematic. All of this air-taxi gumpf fails to allow for the sheer density of required landing pads, noise and airspace required, much as central OXCAM have had to do away with parking for private cars and tell people to use the bus.
Unless by "taxi" you're referring to high-dependency patient transfer, in which case yes, aviation can be helpful.
Good for Highlands & Islands or edge medical cases (albeit - as you point out - they're still inferior to standard air ambos at the moment).
"And split 14 ways it's not going to go far."
£314K each hardly cover the tea and decent (VAT assessable) biscuits or a few milliseconds of "advanced" AI. ;)
Slightly more seriously I imagine you could buy 10-20 "industrial" chinese drones with which these cut rate researchers might wreak havoc upon the unfortunate ground dwellers in their vicinity.
All seems to lack any real "willing" which I suppose could also easily be said of all recent UK governments.
A smaller company or university engineering lab can get a lot done with a few hundred grand. I don't know whether this is who the money will end up with - obviously it would barely cover a project management intern for a Big 4 consultancy- but hopefully it will get to people who can do interesting work with it.
This'll be the same government (I know, not the same party) that enthusiastically strangled commercial drone development over the last decade by insisting on a programme of continuous changes and additions to licensing requirements? The same CAA that puts out regular consultations that are apparently all ignored because they were going to do something else anyway?
Sneezing a microscopic budget at a few trials is not going to undo the environment that has essentially killed drone technology in the UK and handed it to China and the USA.
yes, unfortunately yes : as a hobby model aircraft builder and pilot, I can see the cumulative restrictions placed on our activities. Now, not only do we need an individual license (an insurance) but each small aircraft need to be administratively declared and have a GPS tracking chip on-board. While I understand that there can be dangerous situations with big multi-rotor drones, I also see that politicians are unable to make the difference between a 2m balsa glider and a 50cm carbon quadcopter. We're treated as terrorists for both
Amazing to be at the cutting edge of technology!
What do you mean Rwanda have been using drones for rural blood deliveries since 2016? UKGov, probably.
