SATE (Sustainable Aviation Test Environment) Project
Leader in autonomous systems, Flare Bright Ltd, has won two InnovateUK Future Flight grants for projects totalling ￡418,589. These are to help create the UK’s first low-carbon aviation test environment in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland with trialling precision autonomous drone deliveries (Sustainable Aviation Test Environment, or SATE), and to deliver safe and more effective UAVs by accurately measuring and modelling winds in urban and other challenging environments (Safezone). These projects will receive a share of ￡30 million funded by the Future Flight Challenge from UK Research and Innovation through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.
SATE is an innovative project which will create the UK's first low-carbon aviation test environment. There is a need to rapidly decarbonise the aviation sector to reconcile these competing imperatives and to reduce the carbon footprint of air travellers.
Flare Bright’s role in the project is to use its cutting-edge autonomous drone technology to precision deliver medicines, vaccines and other small items to remote communities rapidly, cheaply and without emissions.
The biggest use of energy for any aircraft is taking off and the climb. And for rotary aircraft it is also landing. If you minimise this you will save energy, costs and be more sustainable. Flare Bright are developing the concept of dropping their precision gliding drone, carrying a small payload (of a vaccine, perhaps) from an existing aircraft or even a larger unmanned aircraft. Having many of Flare Bright's drones on board means you can deliver to many locations without the expense and energy burn of the larger aircraft needing to climb or descend. It's like a smart and precision-guided parachute. And the drones themselves get recycled in slow time, very much like glass bottles used to be recycled in shops or with the milkman, which those of a certain vintage will remember. This is a perfect solution for remote island communities, where there isn't an easy way to land an aircraft and boat travel is slow.
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