Drone flight test at Wick airport
Test flight of the largest unmanned air vehicle (UAV) in Europe.
Transcript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:03 (typing)
00:05 (dramatic music)
00:31 - Good morning, it's an exciting time
00:33 for the SAIT consortium.
00:36 We finally managed to bring our aircraft,
00:40 almost the largest cargo UAV in Europe, up to WIC.
00:46 And it's a pleasure to have the director
00:51 of the SAIT consortium and senior management here.
00:55 Do you wanna just give a quick--
00:58 - Morning, sir, yeah, good morning.
00:59 Well, it is an exciting morning, it's an early morning.
01:02 We're here at WIC, we're in the sustainable
01:06 aviation test environment.
01:08 We're looking forward to the first flight,
01:10 first flight in Scotland, in fact,
01:11 I think the first flight in the UK of a vehicle,
01:14 a heavy lift, autonomous drone, so really exciting times.
01:18 We've got the wind, or rather we haven't got the wind,
01:21 which is good news, we're just hoping that the water--
01:24 - The rain would help us. - May have faded slightly.
01:26 And then we'll be off for the flight,
01:28 which will be very exciting.
01:30 We've been absolutely delighted that our care systems
01:33 have joined the consortium, and the real point
01:36 of this flight is that we're looking forward
01:38 to the future, where we can have this aircraft in service,
01:41 particularly in this region, and help us
01:44 with the connectivity challenges we have,
01:46 particularly to move cargo and freight around the islands
01:50 and some of the more rural communities
01:53 that clearly we have up there.
01:54 (upbeat music)
01:57 (upbeat music)
02:00 - So, the guys, our care systems ready for the quick pass.
02:09 - Obviously roger, there's no traffic in the ATZ,
02:11 7100 degrees south-north, drone flight.
02:15 (upbeat music)
02:17 (upbeat music)
02:20 - This was a successful test of the full-size prototype
02:42 of the C600, which is the largest VTOL cargo UAV
02:47 in Europe.
02:49 We are very thankful to Innovate UK
02:51 and all of the parties who supported us for this test
02:54 and look forward for BVLAS test,
02:57 and also different use cases that we could use
03:00 this aircraft and take it to the commercialization.
03:03 - I'm delighted to say that we've had a really successful
03:06 trial here today at Wake Airport,
03:08 and it's the first of kind in the UK again.
03:11 And hopefully we'll see a lot more of this kind of thing
03:14 in the future, and hopefully this is just the first step
03:17 in what is really exciting developments in aviation.
03:20 It's really is a good time to be part
03:23 of the aviation industry.
03:25 I've been in it for over 20 years
03:26 and it's probably the most exciting developments
03:28 as this last few years with novel types of aircraft
03:32 like this, and you can see how it really can make
03:34 a big difference to people in remote and rural communities,
03:37 which is what we serve.
03:38 So, HILE is delighted to be a partner in this eight project
03:42 and hopefully we'll have a lot more successful trials.
03:45 - Hello, I'm the CTO of Arcair Systems.
03:49 I had the pleasure of leading the team
03:51 who've designed and flown this UAV.
03:54 All the credit should go to the team.
03:57 This is a first for the UK, and I think in Europe,
04:01 being the largest UAV in free flight under civilian license,
04:06 that's quite an achievement.
04:08 Hi, good afternoon.
04:09 It's David Holden from the Sustainable Aviation
04:11 Test Environment.
04:13 Absolutely delighted with today's successful
04:16 first test flight of Arcair Systems
04:19 and their C600 heavy lift autonomous drone.
04:23 We've had a brilliant morning here at a quite cold,
04:26 quite damp Wick Airport.
04:28 Got a few thank yous.
04:29 First of all, thank you to the Arcair Systems team.
04:33 A massive thank you to the HILE,
04:35 Highlands and Islands Airports team here at Wick,
04:38 John O'Groats, who've been out since early this morning.
04:41 And a special thank you to the UKRI
04:44 and the Future Flight Challenge
04:45 for the funding and the opportunity.
04:47 We can see the potential of this technology,
04:50 and we've proved the technology works well this morning,
04:53 and we're looking forward to flights over longer distances
04:56 and beyond visual line of sight,
04:58 and hopefully seeing it in service
05:01 to provide benefits to the local community
05:03 in the very near future.
05:04 Thank you ever so much.
05:06 (upbeat music)
05:08 (upbeat music)
05:11 (upbeat music)
05:13 (upbeat music)
05:16 (upbeat music)
05:19 (upbeat music)
05:21 (upbeat music)
05:24 (upbeat music)
05:26 (upbeat music)
05:29 (upbeat music)
05:32 (whooshing)