Broader Programmes

Flying High

5 March 2020

Home » News » Flying High

What was Flying High?

Helping UK cities to shape the use and future of drones for good.
The Flying High Challenge was a collaborative engagement with cities, technologists and researchers, regulators, government, public services and citizens to shape the future of urban drone use in the UK to meet local needs.

Following a research and city engagement phase, the programme focused on developing innovation challenges, urban demonstrators, and stakeholder and public engagement.

Why did we do this?

Drone technology is advancing rapidly.

UK cities now have a unique opportunity to shape this disruptive technology, in order to maximise the economic and social benefits it could bring, whilst ensuring safety.

Led by cities, Flying High aims to position the UK as a global leader in shaping drone systems that place people’s needs first.

What are we doing?

Run by Challenge Works, in partnership with Innovate UK, Flying High was the first programme of its kind to convene city leaders, regulators, public services, businesses and industry around the future of drones in cities.

The first phase comprised a nine-month research and engagement process, working with five city-regions across the UK (Bradford, London, Preston, Southampton and the West Midlands) to develop visions for the future of drones and assess technical feasibility and economic and social impact of urban drone applications. The outputs of this phase, which also included mapping the UK drone industry and exploring the systemic requirements for integrating drones in cities, are summarised in the Flying High Report.

The planned next phase of the programme will be to design a series of innovation challenges and develop test beds to pioneer safe, sustainable drone systems that deliver the benefits for cities and citizens outlined in the first phase.

The challenge objectives include:

Shape city plans on the future of drones in UK cities, exploring specific applications of drones within cities and hazardous environments.
Identify and address key complexities such as technology, infrastructure, law, regulations, safety and privacy.
Detail technical and economic plans that unlock market opportunity through regulatory testbeds, open innovation technology challenges and live, real-world demonstrations.

We engaged widely with cities across the UK, central government bodies, the CAA, research and technical bodies and a range of other stakeholders to design this programme.

Watch this video to learn more about our work so far

Our Flying High report

There are four key themes underlying Flying High…

Technology

Drone technology is advancing rapidly with the potential to perform critical services in everyday city life – from transporting urgent medical supplies to bridge inspection and repair.
Cities and people

Cities and people must be at the centre of shaping potential uses for drones and how they may integrate sustainably into communities.
Potential impact

Drone systems have the potential to advance cities’ social, economic, transport, environmental and innovation plans.
Integration challenges

Drone systems must integrate sustainably and safely within cities and hazardous environments taking into account real-world conditions.

ABOUT DRONES

The drone sector is growing fast. By 2030, PwC estimates that drones will have contributed to a £42bn increase in UK GDP, £16bn in annual cost savings to the UK economy. There will be over 600,000 jobs in the drone economy.

Drones are already touching sectors of the economy far beyond aerospace and engineering. PwC estimates that seven sectors will see positive impacts of over 1% in sector GDP from drones – ranging from agriculture to retail.

Analysis carried out as part of the Flying High Challenge by Nesta, PwC and Glass2 has identified over 650 firms in the UK drone industry, including both technology and service firms operating in a range of sectors.

We have also identified over 400 public grants that have been awarded by Innovate UK, the Research Councils and Horizon 2020 to develop drone or drone-related technologies.

Since 2010, when there were only five operators licensed in the UK, the number of CAA approved drone operators has increased exponentially to 4,411 licensed operators as of 3 July 2018.

The judges

Louis Barson

Head of Challenger Business Programme, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Eamonn Beirne

Head of Emerging Aviation Technologies, Department for Transport
Andrew Carter

CEO, Centre for Cities
Andrew Clark

Director of Programmes, Royal Academy of Engineering
Tessa Darly

Head of Transport, Knowledge Transfer Network
Stacey Gillet

Government Innovation, Bloomberg Philanthropy
Gavin Goudie

Operations Director, Blue Bear Systems
Nikos Pronios

Innovation Lead – RAS, Innovate UK
Alice Stitt

Technologist, Aerospace Technology Institute
Wendy Welsh

Head of Air Operations, National Rail
Mark Westwood

Technology Director, Transport Systems Catapult