Altitude Angel

SAM IS ....
Altitude Angel launches next-gen Airspace Management Solution for Airports

London, UK.  Altitude Angel, the world’s leading UTM (Unified Traffic Management) technology provider, today announced it is bringing to market a next-generation airspace management solution – GuardianUTM Enterprise – an intuitive, cost-effective platform which will initially be deployed to support regional and local airports and airfields.   

GuardianUTM Enterprise provides a combined view of the airspace in the vicinity of airports and offers a ‘one-stop’ solution to enable the airport to start designing and providing UTM Services for drone companies and drone operators, using Altitude Angel’s proven digital authorisation and flight management technology.  

Furthermore, ahead of the EASA U-Space Regulations which are expected to become law from 1 January 2023, GuardianUTM Enterprise is designed to enable airspace authorities to digitise approvals for drone operations using services integrated with CIS (Common Information Service) and USSP (U-Space Service Providers) architectures. 

Using GuardianUTM Enterprise, airports can easily set access policies and create automation workflows which are accessible via Altitude Angel’s UTM ecosystem and used by hundreds of thousands of drone pilots, manufacturers and software companies daily.  In doing so, this guarantees the airport the best available view of the sky and nearby drone operations, ensuring a growing sector of the aviation market is able to access the new airport UTM Service. 

For larger airports with counter-UAS solutions, data from on-site surveillance systems can be optionally integrated to give airport security staff greater situation intelligence which is a critical step in encouraging greater drone use. 

The solution can be rapidly deployed and configured for airports of any size; providing a flexible platform for enabling drones to be safely integrated in the airspace around these facilities: a crucial step in unlocking a wide variety of unique use-cases for drones. 

Key features of GuardianUTM Enterprise include: 

  • Digitalisation of pre-flight and take-off approvals to drone operators within airspace
  • Offers high levels of automation, including customised automated access policies and approval workflows of unmanned operations.
  • Supports UTM Service Discovery via Altitude Angel’s developer platform – a capability which allows 3rd party vendors to create integrated services which can locate and submit access requests in a standardised format, globally. 
  • Integrates with existing surveillance infrastructure to improve aerial monitoring of all airspace users within the airport’s vicinity, adding intelligence to existing counter-UAS solutions. 

Simon Wynn Mackenzie, Altitude Angel, VP Products said: “We’re excited to be making the solution generally available, giving airports and airfields across the globe the chance to have an even fuller picture of the airspace they manage and an option to welcome safely integrated drone traffic into their operations. When designing the solution, we analysed common ‘pain points’ of airports and ensured they were addressed. We wanted to ensure we created something airports and airfields needed to support them in integrating and scaling unmanned operations safely; something which can grow with their operational needs both now and well into the future. 

“The solution we’ve created can be introduced easily and gives users instant visibility over the sky they manage and an interface which can be exposed to the drone industry. Plus, those wishing to utilise drone services will have a mechanism to see which airports are ‘UTM Ready’. With an easy-to-use operational interface for airport operators which requires minimal training and no additional on-site hardware to be deployed – but with the option at larger airports to integrate with existing electronic flight management systems, the intuitive ‘top-down view’ allows airspace managers to clearly distinguish authorised and unauthorised drones in real-time and take appropriate action.” 

Built on cloud infrastructure, GuardianUTM Enterprise is continuously updated with the latest and most accurate aeronautical data available and draws on data from Altitude Angel’s growing ecosystem through its real-time connection to Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM Cloud. The platform also offers uncompromising scalability and security, with the ability to scale airspace regions, and to offer increasingly complex digital approval and even automated workflows as operational capacity expands and new drone services develop.

25 March 2021

SAM IS ....
Building a Safer Sky


London, UK; Altitude Angel has today announced it expects to become Europe’s foremost supplier of UTM (Unified Traffic Management) technologies enabling nationwide drone operations globally within the next 18 months, as it releases new figures which detail the vast and extensive use of its UTM operating system and cloud platform.

In the UK, Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM platform, which is the technology behind many of the leading drone-specific flight planning platforms as well as the UK’s most trusted airspace awareness tools and apps, has supported more than 20,000 drone operations in Controlled (CTR) and Restricted Airspace (FRZ) over the past 12 months with this number expected to rise significantly in 2021.

“General and commercial aviation traffic has been greatly reduced as a result of COVID. Quieter skies have enabled a huge acceleration in the development and demonstration of drone, or RPAS, technologies,” said Richard Parker, Altitude Angel, CEO and co-founder. “As the UK and Europe begin to emerge from the pandemic, we expect drone operations will continue and grow at an even faster pace and Altitude Angel will continue its role as a critical player in ensuring every flight can be conducted safely.”

With an estimated 1m drone flights conducted across Europe every week, Altitude Angel expects at least a fifth of them to regularly ‘touch its estate’ via its many industry integrations at some time over the next 12 months, with this figure only set to increase as commercial drone use and urban air mobility become common place.

As well as providing the software platform on which pioneering countries such as the Netherlands and Norway are building country-wide drone eco-systems, with several other high-profile rollouts coming in 2021, Altitude Angel’s UTM technologies are the platform on which several high-profile critical trials and demonstrations are enabled by in 2021.

These include:

  • Fly2Plan – UK
  • Project XCelerate – UK
  • Airspace of the Future – UK
  • Bringing Air Taxi Services to the South West Region – UK
  • AMU-LED – Spain, Netherlands and UK
  • DSNA U-Space Together – France
  • Skyfarer – UK

Richard added: “We are passionate about our work with future-focused ANSPs, enterprise businesses, regulators, and those developing airspace management platforms to enable a safer sky for all. Airspace integration is key and GuardianUTM is the market-leading platform which fosters and encourages innovation by enabling all stakeholders in the drone industry to operate safely.

“Our vast cloud network of drone manufacturers, pilots, software companies, and other innovators enables us to bring clarity to a rapidly developing industry and offers pioneering countries the ability to offer a safe path for all drone operations to be conducted safely, now: and importantly, on truly tried and tested technology.  No other company offering a national, enabling UTM platform is able to demonstrate this track record.

“ANSPs who deploy this technology send their country and the drone industry a strong statement: ‘we care about you, we want to innovate with you, and we can accommodate you safely as a meaningful part of the aviation ecosystem, in an open, fair and equitable manner.’

“Already, GuardianUTM is empowering everything from drones delivering medical supplies in Scotland, to numerous UAM projects across mainland Europe, and here in the UK we see over 200,000 regular users via dronesafetymap.com, Drone Assist and Guardian mobile apps.”

Over the next six months Altitude Angel will be releasing a series of new functions and updates to its award-winning platform which will further increase the ability of drone pilots to conduct operations in controlled and uncontrolled airspace. Furthermore, the company is set to unveil a suite of new, upgraded apps for drone pilots, which will also be made available to ANSPs around the world, which will encourage flight planning and reporting as a vital part of the U-Space regulations.

Accountancy firm PwC predict by 2030, jobs within the UK drone industry should reach 628,000, with over 76,000 drones operating in British skies.

SAM IS ....
Global Drone Super-Highways a step closed as Octopus Ventures backs Altitude Angel

VC backs airspace management platform developer with £4m investment

 Altitude Angel, the world’s leading UTM (Unified Traffic Management) technology provider, today announced it raised a further £4m ($5.3m US) from one of Europe’s largest VC investors, Octopus Ventures.

The latest fundraising concludes Altitude Angel’s series A round, led by Octopus Ventures and existing investor Seraphim Capital. It also brings the total invested in Altitude Angel in 2020 to £7.05m ($9.4m)

UTM is the platform which will allow UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, sometimes called drones) and manned aircraft to operate harmoniously in shared skies. Through the widespread adoption of UTM platforms, governments and authorities will be able to begin building the super-highways of the future – networks of interlinking drone corridors which will revolutionise the transportation of goods; from medical supplies and fast-food deliveries to ‘Amazon-like’ parcel drop off and collections.

The investment will allow Altitude Angel to capitalise on its reputation as the world’s leader in developing and deploying local and national UTM platforms, allowing it to further expand its international presence and in doing so, accelerate the safe and secure use of drones in skies across the globe. Following the opening of its Dutch HQ in September, the company will be opening offices local to its international partners in addition to increasing its presence in markets promoting UTM growth through H1 2021.

Octopus Ventures’ Zoë Chambers will join the Altitude Angel board, which is chaired by former Microsoft executive Pieter Knook.

Zoë Chambers, deep tech investor at Octopus Ventures, said: “We’ve been talking about the potential of drones to radically transform all sorts of industries for a long time now, as the number of applications is huge, but for it to be viable, we need a system that can manage drones and, eventually, other types of unmanned air traffic at scale.

“Altitude Angel’s technology solves this problem and allows highly automated drones to be safely integrated within a nation’s airspace and, in doing so, allow drones to be used to survey infrastructure, deliver small parcels, or even deliver important medical supplies, such as donor organs, without disturbing normal air traffic.

“The market opportunity is enormous, and we firmly believe Altitude Angel’s UTM platform will become the blueprint for drone integration and the infrastructure layer for an unmanned air traffic networkacross the globe. Richard and his team have already made meaningful progress towards this goal and we’re excited to get to work to help realise their vision.”

Richard Parker, Altitude Angel, founder and CEO added: “Altitude Angel has consistently broken new ground in the development and deployment of Unified Traffic Management technology, pioneering the integration of UTM within existing ATM (Air Traffic Management) systems and networks. Our partnership with Octopus Ventures and the investment they have made in our business will allow us to significantly build on the foundations we’ve spent the past years laying. 

“The substantial investments made in our company throughout 2020 – during a time of immense globally instability – demonstrate the solid basis for the business we’re building and means we can focus more on accelerating our growth and expansion plans, strengthening our existing solution portfolio and continue to deliver on our vision for the future of automated transport. As countries around the world rebuild from the impact of COVID, we’re going to help them build-back bigger, stronger and, most importantly: equipped to deal with tomorrow’s skies.”

This latest investment follows Altitude Angel’s announcement in September it would be opening the world’s first commercial drone super-highway in open and unrestricted airspace in the Thames Valley, to the west of London, in 2021. The corridor uses Altitude Angel’s “Arrow” technology.

Operated and managed by Altitude Angel, the site will be available to support fully automated drone flights beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) from any drone company which completes a series of basic technical integrations which, crucially, don’t require specialist hardware on-board the drone.

Altitude Angel was founded in 2014 by Richard Parker and has quickly become the world’s leading UTM technology company. Its solutions are deployed by air navigation service providers (ANSPs) around the globe, including the Netherlands’ LVNL, Norway’s Avinor and the UK’s NATS, with further significant rollouts planned in 2021. Its market leading data is also used by drone manufactures, including the world’s largest, DJI, flight planning platforms and enterprise businesses. 

SAM IS ....
Pop-Up UTM successfully demonstrated by Altitude Angel, Inmarsat and A-Techsyn

Test flights using drones flying Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) confirm ground-breaking capabilities of unmanned traffic management platform

London, UK; Altitude Angel, the world’s leading Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) technology provider, Inmarsat, the world leader in global mobile satellite communications, and A-techSYN, a foremost manufacturer of next generation Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), today announced the successful conclusion of drone test flights using their jointly developed Pop-Up UTM platform.

The Pop-Up UTM platform delivers advanced Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) flight tracking for UAVs. It enables drones to be safely integrated into controlled airspace and ensures they are visible to – and can be kept distant from – other air traffic.

During October and November 2020, an A-TechSYN CGT50 VTOL UAV – using the compact Cobham AVIATOR 200 satcom solution integrated with UAV Navigation’s POLAR Attitude & Heading Reference System (AHRS) – flew numerous BVLOS flights, connected and tracked using Inmarsat’s global L-band satellite network. The fully autonomous flights were initiated and monitored by a pilot 60km from the take-off and landing area near Ankara, Turkey, and were tracked, monitored and managed using the Pop-Up UTM platform by a team at Altitude Angel’s HQ in Reading, United Kingdom.

The test flights produced excellent results, with the UTM platform offering full situational awareness to the operator team. During the tests, the system detected a possible conflict with a commercial aircraft. As designed, the Pop-Up UTM correctly triggered a warning to de-conflict the two aircraft, allowing appropriate avoidance action to be taken.

Phil Binks, Altitude Angel’s Head of Air Traffic Management, said: “Our partnership with Inmarsat in the development of Pop-Up UTM has, in a little under six months, engineered a platform which has the power to save lives and revolutionise the way operators deploy UAV services. As an example, emergency services and first responders would be able to use drones alongside manned aircraft in the most challenging of scenarios. The trial flights not only established how Pop-Up UTM could be quickly deployed, but the unexpected arrival of a GA aircraft and its triggering of the de-confliction software demonstrated how the platform will perform in a real-world environment.”

All flights were conducted under full satcom command and control, with FPV (Forward Position Video) feed, utilising Inmarsat’s SB-S platform. Successful handovers occurred between satcom and radio frequency control, demonstrating that Inmarsat can deliver advanced BVLOS operations for UAVs.

Anthony Spouncer, Inmarsat Aviation’s Senior Director of UAVs & UTM, added: “With our global satellite network, and more than 30 years of experience in communications, navigation and surveillance services, Inmarsat is uniquely placed to be the catalyst for growth of the commercial UAV market and bring powerful benefits to business and society as a result. With flight tests now complete, we are excited to offer new UTM services in 2021 and beyond that will help businesses unlock the limitless possibilities of commercial drone operations.”

The drone test flights provided a real-world demonstration of how Pop-Up UTM can be used to allow manned and unmanned aircraft to operate in close proximity, safely and securely. With BVLOS operations now a reality, a single pilot can operate a UAV remotely and beyond the horizon, boosting the commercial viability of unmanned aerial operations.

Gokhan Celik, A-techSYN’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “With this demonstration, we have successfully overcome a significant challenge facing the aviation industry – safely integrating UAVs into civil airspace. UAVs weighing more than 50kg, such as A-TechSYN’s CGT50 VTOL, are fast becoming the gold standard in unmanned operations, including search and rescue, pipeline/powerline inspections, and long distance medical delivery. Drones can now evolve from passive broadcasting to active communication with the UTM in real time, mirroring manned aviation processes. We are very happy with the results of the Pop-Up UTM and have decided to make Inmarsat satcom connectivity and UTM integration standard on all our CGT50 VTOL units.”

16th December 2020

SAM IS ....
BT & Altitude Angel lead consortium to deliver ‘Future Flight’ Drones Project to revolutionise airspace


London, UK:  BT took a significant leap into the commercial drones market today, as the company announced, alongside Altitude Angel, the formation of a new consortium to deliver a series of industry use cases across the UK’s first commercial drone corridor.

BT,  together with Altitude Angel and a number of UK tech start-ups, have been selected by UK Research and Innovation to deliver “Project XCelerate” – a key Future Flight Challenge project which will establish the UK’s first commercial drone corridor in open and unrestricted airspace, located south of Reading, Berkshire.

In summer 2021, the project will conduct flight trials along the 8km-long corridor to demonstrate how drones can operate safely in the same airspace as manned aviation. The consortium will demonstrate key industry use cases across healthcare, emergency services and infrastructure to illustrate how drone deliveries and inspection can bring countless benefits to businesses, the public sector and UK citizens. 

Gerry McQuade, CEO of BT’s Enterprise unit, said: “As drone numbers continue to rise, there is an urgent need to safely integrate commercial drones into global airspace alongside manned aviation. In showing how drones can deliver improved, potentially life-saving services to the public, we’re aiming to accelerate the adoption of fully automated drones in unrestricted UK airspace in a safe and responsible way.”

“From improved mobility, connectivity, healthcare and manufacturing output, to reduced road congestion and pollution, automated drone technology will transform the quality of our lives. BT’s role in the consortium is to bring world-leading drone expertise together and to provide the secure and resilient mobile network connectivity, as well as our drone detection services. The power of EE’s 4G and 5G networks will ensure commercial drones remain connected for greater situational awareness, accurate positioning and to avoid collisions – ensuring that they can be operated safely and responsibly across UK skies.”

Richard Parker, Altitude Angel, CEO and founder said: “Project XCelerate is bringing together experts and world leaders in their respective fields, something we’re very proud and excited to be a part of. Our Arrow technology is truly ground-breaking and the key enabler to the project and we’re pleased to be deploying it for maximum benefit in the UK first.”

Joining BT and Altitude Angel as part of the consortium are: drone technology experts from Dronecloud, HeroTech8 and Skyports, cyber security provider Angoka, and end user experts SkyBound Rescuer and DroneStream.

The key use cases which will be explored by the consortium include using drones to assist the emergency services, for example during road traffic collisions and search and rescue missions. Using 3D mapping techniques, drones can be used for forensics purposes to aid the police when responding to road traffic collisions and can also help to locate missing persons during search and rescue missions. Project XCelerate will prove how drone technology can be used to speed up response times for such incidents, helping the emergency services to improve the chances of survival, whilst also reducing costs.

The project will also demonstrate how automated drones can reduce the lead times for urgently needed medical deliveries, helping the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors to improve standards of patient care. A further use case is key infrastructure inspection, where drones can be used to help assess damage or maintenance required for critical national infrastructure for the utilities, telecoms and transport sectors.

BT’s strengths in reliable, secure, high bandwidth, low-latency radio and fixed connectivity mean it is ideally placed to lead the consortium. Its EE mobile network – the biggest and fastest in the UK, and the trusted provider behind the critical Emergency Services Network (ESN) – will ensure that a safe commercial drone corridor can be established with optimal mobile coverage at altitude. BT will provide the critical communications required for BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) environments such as GPS location and remote identification, command and control, redundant geo-awareness, and live notifications (NOTAMs) sent directly to drones in-flight.

BT will combine its experience with Altitude Angel’s leading experience in Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) platforms, together with its operation of the Arrow Drone Zone commercial drone corridor. UTM is a key enabler to address the safe and efficient integration of unmanned vehicles into airspace. Project XCelerate will combine a network of existing and new technologies underpinned by Altitude Angel’s proven UTM platform, incorporating existing air traffic management and communications systems and augmented by new technology, such as 5G.

Project XCelerate aims to widen the use of UTM systems by providing a framework which towns, cities, organisations and networks can follow in order to ‘open up’ portions of the sky. The project consortium is powerfully placed to realise the world’s first live commercial automated BVLOS flight zone in which any compatible vehicle can connect into and fly within safely.

For further information

15th December 2020

SAM IS ....
Altitude Angel Shortlisted for Two ATM Magazine Awards

London, UK. ATM Magazine today announced Altitude Angel, the world’s leading UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) technology provider, has been shortlisted in two of its 2020 ATM Awards categories.

With partner Inmarsat, Altitude Angel has been shortlisted in the UTM Service Supplier Projects, which recognises pioneering technologies and procedures in UTM safety and complex operations, for its Pop Up UTM programme.

And in the ATM/UTM Integration category, which recognises outstanding efforts in integrating UTM into ATM operations, Altitude Angel and partner LVNL have been shortlisted for the launch and successful introduction of the GoDrone app.

In addition, Altitude Angel have also been recognised in a third nomination. As a partner of Frequentis, Altitude Angel have been integral to Avinor’s roll-out of UTM across Norway, with the project also being shortlisted in the ATM/UTM Integration category.

Of Altitude Angel being shortlisted, Richard Parker, Altitude Angel CEO and founder, said: “Firstly, I would like to congratulate our fellow nominees on being shortlisted. 2020 has been a challenging time for everyone within the ATM and UTM industries. But we’ve achieved a great deal over the past 12 months, from our work for the African Drone Forum and Lake Kivu challenge, launching GoDrone with LVNL, developing a potentially lifesaving platform with Inmarsat in Pop-Up UTM, as well as being an integral part of the team delivering Norway, through Avinor, a nationwide UTM platform.

“Being shortlisted for two awards and a partner in a third is testament not only to the hard work and dedication the Altitude Angel team have put in through 2020, but to the strong relationships and deep level of understanding we have with our partners across the industry. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved this year and we’re looking forward to the opportunities the new year will bring.”

The winners were originally scheduled to be announced at the World ATM Congress, but when the Congress was rescheduled from March 2021 to October, ATM Magazine made the bold decision to proceed with the awards independently.  The winners will now be announced at a virtual ceremony in the new year [date TBC].

7th December 2020

SAM IS ....
Drone Harmony Select Altitude Angel as Global Map Data Provider

London, UK:  Altitude Angel, the world’s leading UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) technology provider, today announced mission planning platform, Drone Harmony, has opted to embed Altitude Angel’s market-leading data in its flight mapping solutions.

Drone Harmony is a software company developing a data capture platform that enables enterprises to capture quality data of infrastructure assets, thus addressing the main hurdle encountered when attempting to tap into digitalisation benefits: the lack of complete, quality, and up-to-date digital databases representing the enterprise assets.

Drone Harmony will draw on Altitude Angel’s GuardianUTM system for accurate, real-time, and relevant geospatial data.

Drone Harmony‘s market-first 3D data capture platform consists of fully integrated mobile and web applications and cloud service. It is designed to be globally deployable, easy to incorporate into enterprises’ infrastructure workflow supports widely available ‘off-the-shelf’ drones.

The key enabling technology is an automated mission planning capability that exploits GIS, CAD, and shape data about the inspected asset’s geometry and its environment to generate and execute safe and optimised data capture missions in complex use cases. Its platform is the first to incorporate a full 3D working interface.

On partnering with Drone Harmony, Richard Ellis, Altitude Angel, Chief Business Officer, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with Drone Harmony and providing them with the richest UTM data picture, not only for Switzerland, but Europe and beyond. 

Martin Fuchsberger, Drone Harmony, founder, and Chief Executive Officer, added: “With Altitude Angel, our operators always have up to date UTM information at their fingertips, thereby ensuring safe drone flights. We are excited to continue building on this foundation, adding safety benefits for our customers, such as flight authorization (LAANC) and RemoteID services.”

ENDS

About Altitude Angel: 

Altitude Angel is an aviation technology company delivering solutions which enable the safer integration and use of fully automated drones into airspace. Through its Airspace Management platform, GuardianUTM O/S, they deliver the essential software platform which enable national deployments of U-Space compatible services, safely unlocking the potential of drones and helping national aviation authorities and air navigation service providers to establish new services to support the growth in the drone industry.  

The foundation components of GuardianUTM O/S are also available to enable third-party UTM developers to incorporate enterprise-grade data and services into their UTM solutions.  

Altitude Angel was founded by Richard Parker in 2014 and is headquartered in Reading, UK.  

Altitude Angel’s developer platform is open and available to all at https://developers.altitudeangel.com.  

About GuardianUTM: 

GuardianUTM enables drone manufacturers and software developers to connect into a rich, dynamic source of accurate, authoritative and relevant information to support geofencing, while offering enhanced UTM capabilities such as a single interface to multi-country flight authorisation. 

The system was demonstrated as part of ‘Operation Zenith’ in 2018, offering enhanced airport safeguarding and automated approvals to fly in controlled airspace. Altitude Angel is now bringing online functionality to enable drone pilots anywhere in the world to get 1-click access to controlled airspace. 

Its companion product, GuardianUTM O/S, supports all the functionality required to deliver national-grade drone traffic management capabilities to any country that wishes to safely unlock the potential of drones.

Introduction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd0pvUrS07g 

About Drone Harmony: 

Drone Harmony is a software company developing a data capture platform that enables enterprises to capture quality data of infrastructure assets, thus addressing the main hurdle they encountered when attempting to tap into the benefits of digitalisation: the lack of complete, quality, and up to date digital databases representing the enterprise assets.

Drone Harmony‘s market-first 3D data capture platform consists of mobile and web applications and a cloud service, all fully integrated. It is designed for easy incorporations into the enterprises’ infrastructure workflow and supports off-the-shelf, widely available drones. The key enabling technology is an automated mission planning capability that exploits GIS, CAD and shapes data about the geometry of the inspected asset and its environment to generate and execute safe and optimized data capture missions in complex use cases.

Drone Harmony’s flight planning software is available at:

1st December 2020

SAM IS ....
Research project to open pathway to commercial drone operations the UK

A ground-breaking new project announced today (30th July) will build and then demonstrate how Open-Access UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) capability can support drone operations below 400ft.

The Connected Places Catapult is bringing together a national and international consortium to develop a world leading Open-Access UTM framework for drones. The project, commissioned by the Department for Transport, will continue laying the groundwork for a safe flying environment for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations in the UK, enabling efficient sharing of airspace with manned aircraft and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations of drones. 

There is a huge global opportunity for countries that can successfully accommodate commercial drone operations, it’s thought the sector could be worth £127bn globally. UTM is recognised as a key enabler to address the safe and efficient integration of unmanned vehicles into the airspace and Connected Places Catapult in collaboration with AiRXOS (part of GE Aviation), Altitude Angel, ANRA Technologies, Collins Aerospace and Wing will work towards the first set of the safe and regulated UTM capabilities this year.

This research and development project will create principal architectural features, communications interfaces and key services that will be evaluated through simulations before progressing to field-trials. The trial will build on existing platforms and standards to create a developmental system to explore UTM and drone operations, as well as identifying the next research steps and facilitating knowledge transfer to government and industry.

Dr. Ajay Modha, Principal Technologist at the Connected Places Catapult, said:

“This is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate a UK-specific UTM ecosystem and represents a key step in lowering the technology and operational barriers for UAS operations. A key objective is to demonstrate how this capability can support near term and future markets needs and ambitions. As Phase 2 of the Future Flight Challenge kicks-off, a key aim of this project is to provide greater insight and actionable data to the UAS community who may be tackling UTM for the first time”.

Ted Lester, Chief Technologist, AiRXOS said:

“After participating in the successful 2019-2020 effort with Connected Places Catapult to develop a framework for UTM in the UK, AiRXOS looks forward to demonstrating with peer UTM service providers safe, efficient, and economical UAS airspace integration to accelerate the beneficial use of UAS in the UK and around the world.”

On being chosen to take part in the Connected Places Catapult project, Richard Ellis, Altitude Angel, Chief Business Officer said:

“We are delighted to continue to work with CPC to continue validation of the Open UTM framework we pioneered in 2019.  The live trials will benefit significantly from Altitude Angel’s existing extensive API’s and experience of providing production services across the world.  We believe this will form a solid foundation for the UK to establish repeatable and scalable drone operations.” 

Amit Ganjoo, CEO and Founder of ANRA Technologies UK Pvt Limited said

“The UK is rapidly becoming a global leader in advancing commercial drone technologies.  We are honoured to have contributed to all Connected Places Catapult Open-Access UTM Research and Development Programmes and are excited to commence live-flight testing in pursuit of a safe, interoperable, and efficient traffic management system,”

Sean Camilleri, Principal Strategic Development Manager at Collins Aerospace said:

“This ground-breaking program gives us the opportunity to test out the most prominent emerging standards and theories of UAS traffic management and put them to the test in collaboration with our peers. Successful trials will enable us to move another step closer to unlocking the full social and economic benefits of beyond visual line of sight drone operations in the UK”.

James Ryan Burgess, CEO at Wing said:

“Drones and the services they provide present significant benefits to the United Kingdom, supporting emergency response, reducing emissions and air pollution and increasing access to food, medicine and other goods. We’re pleased to be joining the Catapult project to advance the safe and open use of the airspace and look forward to bringing our global experience to enable a scalable and low cost UTM architecture that can support the volume and diversity of unmanned aviation.”

Note to Editors

This project will build on the UTM and Government Drone Pathfinder activity that Connected Places Catapult has published previously:

Future Flight Challenge

Future Flight is one of several challenge areas set-out by the UK government’s Industrial Strategy which is a long-term plan to raise the productivity and earning power in the UK. The Future Flight programme is funded by £125 million from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund which is expected to be matched by up to £175 million from industry. The challenge will cover four areas of activity:

  •  Control and regulations including air traffic management
  •  New operating models
  •  Ground infrastructure
  •  Integrating new aircraft with a new aviation system

This challenge aims to revolutionise the way people, goods and services fly and position the UK as a world leader in aviation products and markets worth over $675 billion (£559bn) to 2050.

It will support the development, in the UK, of new technologies from freight-carrying drones

to urban air vehicles to hybrid-electric regional aircraft. These new modes of travel will

increase mobility, reduce road congestion, improve connectivity, increase UK manufacturing

opportunities and help aviation to reduce its environmental impact around the world.

https://www.ukri.org/innovation/industrial-strategy-challenge-fund/

Government Drone Pathfinder Programme

Connected Places Catapult manages the Drones Pathfinder Programme in partnership with the Department of Transport (DfT) and supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).  https://cp.catapult.org.uk/pathfinder/

SAM IS ....
Altitude Angel to Partner Skyfarer, FlyPulse and Coventry Uni on Medical Drone Delivery Service
Altitude Angel Skyfarer FlyPulse BVLOS Drone Corridor

London, UK:  Altitude Angel, the world’s leading UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) technology provider, today announced it is to join an international consortium comprising of tech start-ups and a world-renowned university research department to establish a corridor in the Midlands to enable medical & other deliveries via drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).

Skyfarer’s solution is a system of systems, neatly packaged into a robust operational process, leveraging the expertise and technology from the technical partners. It is a platform which 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, Skyfarer will be able to distribute medication, blood, test kits, food, digital devices and much more within a Just-In-Time operational framework with very low infrastructure.

Alongside Skyfarer, Altitude Angel will be joining Swedish autonomous system solutions provider, FlyPulse, and members of the Coventry University Future Transport and Cities Research Institute.

Skyfarer is taking the first steps to creating a drone corridor in the Midlands (UK) which will connect communities, airports, and medical facilities.

On joining the consortium Richard Ellis, Altitude Angel, Chief Business Officer, said: “We are excited to be working with Skyfarer to establish safe and repeatable BVLOS capabilities integrated with other airspace users.  This is the next step in truly scaling drone operations.”

Elliot Parnham, Skyfarer, Founder & CEO, added: “Altitude Angel are breaking down barriers with its world leading UTM solution, enabling Skyfarer’s vision of a society connected and supported by drones. We are excited to be collaborating with Altitude Angel in our mission to make drone delivery possible for the benefit of the NHS and society.”

28 July 2020

SAM IS ....
Altitude Angel named UTM provider for African Drone Forum

London, UK: Altitude Angel, the industry-leading UTM (Unmanned Traffic Management) technology provider, has been chosen as the lead and ‘umbrella’ UTM provider for the African Drone Forum and Lake Kivu Challenge 2020, which will take place in February 2020 on the shores of Lake Kivu, Rwanda.

The 2020 African Drone Forum comprises a symposium, expo, business plan competition and a series of automated drone flying competitions which are designed to showcase how emerging technology can improve the lives of people in hard-to-reach rural communities.

It is a multi-stakeholder initiative supported by the World Bank, UK Department for International Development (DFID)/UK Aid, World Economic Forum, World Food Programme, UNICEF, Danida and other partners in collaboration with the Government of Rwanda. The symposium and expo will be taking place in Kigali from February 5 to 7, 2020, with competitive flights commencing on February 8, 2020.

The Lake Kivu Challenge flying competitions are designed to illustrate the real-world applications of airspace management, delivery and autonomous flight.

Altitude Angel’s role will be as the foundational UTM Service Provider (SP) for the African Drone Forum and Lake Kivu Challenge 2020, providing the FIMS (Flight Information Management System). During the Challenge, all other UTM SPs, UAS manufacturers and developers will interface with Altitude Angel’s UTM system ensuring all operations can be monitored and tracked for regional ATC, safely integrating flights into local airspace. In doing so, the Challenge will demonstrate the full capability of drones to enhance humanitarian and commercial operations.

Rwanda’s Lake Kivu region has been specially selected for this symposium, as it presents logistical challenges which unmanned aerial vehicles are uniquely positioned to address. The region is densely populated and located around an expanse of water, surrounded by hilly conditions which are notoriously difficult to traverse with conventional land vehicles.

On being selected as the lead UTM provider for the Lake Kivu Challenge 2020, Richard Parker, Altitude Angel, CEO and founder, said: “The potential for drones to be used to transform lives and revolutionise businesses across all of Africa is immense. The continent has a unique opportunity to embrace a new technology and bring about fundamental, positive change to all. The African Drone Forum Lake Kivu Challenge 2020 will showcase this potential and we’re thrilled to be part of this important project.”

Jonty Slater from IMC Worldwide, supporting the Lake Kivu Challenge 2020, added: “As the industry-leading UTM provider, we couldn’t be happier having Altitude Angel on board. The company has time and again demonstrated its credentials and this challenge has attracted the world’s best-in-class across all the technology providers who will be taking part. I’m very much looking forward to getting out to Rwanda and seeing the technology put through its paces!”

About Altitude Angel:

Altitude Angel is an aviation technology company delivering solutions which enable the safer integration and use of fully automated drones into airspace. Through its Airspace Management platform, GuardianUTM O/S, they deliver the essential software platform which enable national deployments of USpace compatible services, safely unlocking the potential of drones and helping national aviation authorities and air navigation service providers to establish new services to support the growth in the drone industry.

The foundation components of GuardianUTM O/S are also available to enable third-party UTM developers to incorporate enterprise-grade data and services into their UTM solutions.

Altitude Angel was founded by Richard Parker in 2014 and is headquartered in Reading, UK.

Altitude Angel’s developer platform is open and available to all at https://developers.altitudeangel.com.

 

From SUASnews 

10th January 2019