The SotonUAV team at the University of Southampton has successfully completed the first delivery of the NHS supplies to the Isle of Wight using the Windracers ULTRA, a 350 kg unmanned aircraft developed as part of the CASCADE project.
The drone took off from Lee-on-Solent and landed at Binstead, where team members collected the cargo and delivered it to a local hospital. The drone completed its first mission by flying the return leg and successfully landing at Solent Airport.
Funded by the Department for Transport, the trial is part of the Solent Transport Future Transport Zone (FTZ) project. It will use a UAV designed and built by the University of Southampton for Windracers, to transport medical supplies to St Mary’s Hospital from the mainland via the Solent Airport.
Solent Transport, in partnership with the University of Southampton and Windracers, is advancing part of its four-year drone project, which will look to develop an air traffic management system to oversee the safe movement of both manned and unmanned aircraft in shared airspace.
The aircraft, the Windracers ULTRA, can carry up to 100 kg of payload and features multiple redundant control actuators and a triple redundant flight controller developed by Distributed Avionics.
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