The UK Drone Delivery Group has today released its White Paper for public consultation, in which it provides guidance on how the UK can accelerate growth of its drone industry.
The White Paper calls for the development of new testing grounds.
The new drone industry initiative expects this “to significantly transform the UK’s potential to achieve world-leading status in the fast-moving drone industry.”
This follows bank Barclays’ prediction in November 2019 that the commercial drone market could grow tenfold from $4bn in 2018 to $40 billion by 2023, creating cost savings of $100 bn.
Robert Garbett, founder of the not-for-profit group said: “The recommendations in the White Paper highlight the practical measures necessary to enable full economic development of drones, including the testing of competing solutions to make Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flying possible.”
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Robert Garbett, founder of UK Drone Delivery Group
The UK Drone Delivery Group said it has already received widespread interest from many owners and operators of potential testing grounds.
It will soon embark on a series of pioneering projects to test the capabilities of drones across a range of sectors including agriculture, emergency services and parcel delivery for medicines.
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Mr Garbett added: “Facilitating a world leading UK commercial drone industry will bring immense benefits to UK plc, driving innovation, wealth creation and employment opportunities right across the economy.
"The pace of drone technology development around the world is accelerating, and the UK, if it moves quickly, can reap the full benefits of this technology, not just in the air, but also from drones developed to operate on land or water, underwater or in space.
“The potential benefits are staggering, but we need to act now. We are keen to identify new testing grounds to be used for take-off and landing, ideally including airports and airfields, but also forests, remote coastal areas and ports, through to residential areas and other dense urban environments.
“Industry is looking now to the government to get behind this initiative, working with both public and private sector drone users to help create a world-beating UK industry that could play a huge role in underpinning our future economic prosperity.”
It is anticipated that following the consultation, the completed White Paper will be ready for adoption by the end of June 2020, following a three-month period of consultation and review.
The draft White Paper can be found here together with a form for comments. Feedback is requested by 31 May 2020.
Those interested in participating in the UK Drone Delivery Group’s drone testing ground initiative are asked to contact: https://www.dronedeliverygroup.org/join-the-group
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Source: Written from press release
