Skyway

Project dates: 1 August 2022 – 31 July 2024

About the project

Project Skyway is an ambitious plan to place the UK at the forefront of a transport revolution. Just as trains reduced transport times from days to hours, drones will reduce them from hours to minutes, using energy from renewable sources. This will allow efficient and timely inspection of roads and railways, airport, and port operators to review infrastructure without dangerous or costly closures and provide ‘lanes’ which will enable delivery drones.

Please Note: Funding available is the grant value awarded by Innovate UK.

Project activities

Skyway builds on a previous project part funded by the Future Flight Challenge, Project Xcelerate, which developed the ‘Arrow Drone Zone’ (ADZ), which provided an initial route towards regulatory approvals.

Using Arrow technology as its foundation – allowing crewed and uncrewed aviation to share the sky harmoniously – Skyway aims to develop a nationwide network of ADZs to create a superhighway-network-in-the-sky, providing a critical digital infrastructure which will enable the world’s first truly national, open and competitive drone economy.

Benefits

As the technology is proved through drone operations, more users and use cases are expected to emerge. Electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, will potentially be able to safely cross towns and cities whilst sharing the sky with other crewed and uncrewed aviation.

To find out more about the project, please contact Innovate UK Business Connect’s Knowledge Transfer Manager for Aviation.

Project partners

• Altitude Angel
• Apian
• ANGOKA
• ARPAS-UK
• BT Group
• Connected Places Catapult
• Coventry City Council
• HEROTECH8
• Oxfordshire County Council
• Reading Borough Council
• Skyfarer
• Skyports Deliveries
• Vizgard