The UK-based unified traffic management (UTM) specialist Altitude Angel is having a busy week – first with the rollout of a low-altitude drone and aircraft detection network, and then with the unveiling of UAV and future advanced air mobility (AAM) flight approval tech designed to thrust its domestic market to the top readiness leaders in emerging aerial activities.
On Monday, Altitude Angel announced it had begun the UK deployment of what will be its largest commercial, aviation-grade sensor network in the world thus far. The platform is optimized for wide-area, low-altitude drone, and aircraft detection, and is capable of collecting existing and future remote ID transmissions and other data required for secure UTM navigation.
Today, meanwhile, the company said next week it will also inaugurate UTM services at over 120 UK airports to facilitate both drone and future AAM operation like air taxis using its tech interfaces. Altitude Angel said the move will permit partner platforms to clear small craft flight requests in controlled airspaces through its the Drone Assist app and DroneSafetyMap.com – in some cases providing instantaneous responses through the digital network.
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For airports still relying on analogue permission processes, Altitude Angel said it will use email to communicate planned flights between drone operators to air traffic officials. That will enable a less automated and instantaneous, yet nevertheless unified request, consult, and approval system of what are currently contacts between pilots and individual airports that often work off their own rules and procedures.
The pair of developments serve to create a coordinated drone and future AAM flight information and approval network across the UK, with the low-altitude UTM grid of ADS-B, Mode S Software Defined Radio receivers collecting transmission information from common UAV control systems for smaller craft.
The upshot, says Altitude Angel CEO Richard Parker, will be a nation-spanning resource capable of leap-frogging the UK into a leading position among nations preparing UTM systems to facilitate what’s expected to be swiftly diversifying and scaling drone and AAM services.
“This is a major step for the UK as we put in place the foundations on which (the nation’s) future transport and delivery infrastructure will be built,” said Parker. “By rolling out our platform to all airports, we’re saying to the world the UK is ready and open to UAS and crewed aircraft, sharing the same skies, safely and securely. By bringing the digitization of drone approvals in managed airspace, we’ve cleared the first hurdle on the path to automated drone operations.”
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Japan, Switzerland, France, Germany, and Italy are reputed to have developed their respective drone ecosystems faster than UK – thanks in large part to supportive regulation changes. But Altitude Angel says none of those nations have been able to deploy a standardized, nationwide digital flight approval service across their airport networks, which the UK is now preparing to do in opening the next phase of modern aerial activity.
“Aviation goes beyond the traditional modes of flying and is fast becoming a hub of revolutionary new methods of flight, so it’s important that the UK is ready for the next generation of flight,” UK Aviation Minister Baroness Vere said of the Altitude Angel UTM and airport approval developments. “This platform will help make airspace more accessible for innovative aircraft, keeping track of those who want to fly in airport airspace and is a key step towards achieving the ambitious outcomes that we are setting.”
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