Solutions
Moving loads where ground access is slow, costly or unavailable.
Drone cargo systems transport equipment, supplies and samples across terrain that ground vehicles cross slowly or cannot cross at all: forestry blocks, estates, utilities corridors, and short crossings over water.
The economics work where the alternative is a long vehicle route, a boat, or manual carriage over difficult ground, and where the flight route passes over few people.
Where it is used
- Forestry. Equipment, fuel, samples and survey gear to working areas without vehicle access.
- Estate and land management. Movement between locations where the road route is disproportionate to the straight-line distance.
- Utilities corridors. Tools and components to assets in open country.
- Water crossings. Estuaries, lochs and short island routes where the alternative is a boat or a long diversion.
- Medical and laboratory transfers. Samples, products and supplies between sites, particularly where the road journey is long relative to the distance involved.
- Emergency and unplanned resupply.
The systems
We supply ready-to-fly cargo platforms configured against payload, range and operating environment.
Load handling is specified according to method: set-down, in-flight release, or winch to a working position.
What we supply
The drone and load handling system specified against the loads and routes involved.
Pilot training is available as an additional service, and we can advise on preparing the operations manual and supporting documentation required for CAA authorisation.
Parts are held in the United Kingdom, repairs are carried out in our own workshop, and the enhanced warranty option provides priority servicing and maintenance, with loan equipment where parts are unavailable.
Regulatory position
Cargo operations fall within the Specific Category and require an Operational Authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority.
The determining factor is the route rather than the load. What the drone passes over, and whether the flight is conducted within or beyond visual line of sight, sets the assessment and the evidence the application requires. Operations over forestry, open country and water are the most straightforward, which is why commercial cargo work in the United Kingdom is concentrated in those environments.
Routes beyond visual line of sight require additional evidence and take longer to authorise. Where a requirement depends on them, we will say so at the outset rather than at the point of application.
The Operational Authorisation is held by the operator and not the supplier. The Bionic Eye assists clients in attaining their own.
Provide the route, the load and what lies beneath it. We will advise on the platform, the scope of authorisation required and a realistic timescale.