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Interview white papers through organisations set up by Drone Major such as the Drone Delivery Group( www. dronedeliverygroup. org). Of course, there are a huge number of industry bodies available which we collaborate with as appropriate such as the National Physics Laboratory( NPL), however, we have not engaged very much with R & D organisations as we do not feel that these offer the support needed by the industry. do so through a specialised organisation as the skills needed to develop, integrate and operate such systems safely would detract from the skills needed to manage and implement a successful construction project. The drone industry is set up to deliver such support and services to sectors such as construction, so it makes commercial sense to outsource these capabilities.
As drone operations become more integrated with national infrastructure projects, what skills do you think the construction and civil engineering workforce will need to develop to fully leverage drone technologies? I have long held the belief that organisations looking to utilise RAS technologies should
Beyond rail networks, where do you see the greatest opportunities for BVLOS drones in UK infrastructure? The Digital Tethering™ solution can now be transposed across two key types of CNI: firstly, linear transport CNI infrastructures such as rail, and road and energy infrastructure such as pipelines and powerlines. Beyond this, the planar solution is well suited to operations over defence infrastructure and energy installations such as power stations and wind / solar farms.
This CAA approval sets a precedent, but what changes or developments would you like to see from UK regulators or policymakers to further unlock drone innovation in the built environment? The UK CAA has made significant steps towards simplifying and speeding up the process to obtain an OA by implementing the SORA system but the models / frameworks behind this system to enable SAIL3 and above application in the specific category do not yet exist. As Drone Major evolves the applications for Digital Tethering™, these models / frameworks will be essential so we continue to work with and support the CAA by providing SORA models for our operations which could be used as future SORA frameworks. ■
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