Pioneering drone company near Aylesbury aims to deliver medical supplies to hard-to-reach places

A pioneering company based near Aylesbury is spreading its wings as it looks to deliver medical supplies by drone to remote communities.

Skyports Drone Services, with its UK flight operations based at Westcott Venture Park, is carrying out groundbreaking delivery trials in various locations across the world, including school meal deliveries in Scotland and Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) deliveries in Kenya – with a view to providing regular drone deliveries in hard-to-reach and rural locations in the future.

A successful three-month initiative in Scotland last year saw Skyports Drone Services carry Covid-19 test samples and other medical materials between healthcare facilities in the Argyll & Bute region – becoming the first operator to receive permission from the UK Civil Aviation Authority to carry diagnostic specimens by drone, in a contract funded by the European Space Agency.

Delivery times were cut from up to 36 hours by road and ferry, to 15 minutes using Swoop Aero Kookaburra III drone, while the frequency of pick-ups was also increased.

Skyports has chosen Westcott as its European flight operations headquarters and is based at the Westcott Innovation Centre within the Westcott Space Cluster.

It is also the first drone operator to move into Westcott’s new Drone Test and Development Centre, in which Bucks Local Enterprise Partnership (Bucks LEP) has invested via the government’s Getting Building Fund.

The location will be developed as the Skyports Drone Services global command and control centre for delivery and surveillance drone missions, enabling remote operations of flights. The company will also create a centre of excellence for its pilots.

Strategy and operations manager of Skyports Drone Services, Michael Merritt, said: “We are very proud to be the first resident of the Westcott Drone Test and Development Centre which is the new home for our expert operations teams.

“This environment now fosters innovation and research and enables us to demonstrate and extend our capabilities. The Drone Test and Development Centre will be instrumental to our future flights. The wider Westcott Venture Park space has already become a key hub for our drone services. As we grow as a company, the value of the site will only increase.

“I’d like to thank the Bucks LEP for sourcing the funding which made building the centre possible. There are only four similar facilities in Europe to this, and the plans for Westcott will make it the very best drone port in Europe, not only in terms of technical capability, but also due to the ability to fly, the competitive rates and the broader benefits it brings to the industry.

“The impact that drone deliveries can have on individuals and the communities they live in is transformative. Through its investment, Bucks LEP is promoting innovation and helping to realise the benefits that permanent, regular drone operations can deliver.”

In addition to its rural drone deliveries, the company is working across several other industries in the UK and globally, including carrying out flights for Royal Mail and marine surveillance for the Singapore government.