© Urban-Air Port Ltd.

Two things that don’t mix well together, drones and airports. As drones have become more popular, one of the biggest concerns surrounding them is keeping them clear of manned aircraft and airports. From December 19th to the 20th of 2018, Gatwick Airport outside of London was notoriously shut down when a drone was reported to be near one of the runways. It disrupted the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers, resulting in millions of losses for airlines. For the most part, drone operators have respected shared airspace, and there has never been an instance of a drone and manned aircraft collision. But drones have continued to grow in popularity, so much so that companies are looking to create drone specific airports to meet the growing demand for drone mobility.

Towards the end of 2020, it was announced that Coventry, UK will begin building the world’s smallest airport specifically designed for drones and autonomous vehicles. The airport will be built by Urban-Air Port Ltd. (UAP) and Hyundai with the financial backing of $1.6 million from the UK government. The UK is embarking on a Future Flight Challenge to bringing the country to have a zero carbon footprint by the year 2050. To meet these goals, the government is embracing drone technology to replace delivery vehicles and passenger mobility. Coventry City Council’s Transport Innovation Manager, Sunil Budhdeo, said that Coventry is committed to reducing mobility congestion and reducing emissions. He went on to say that a drone airport would be useful in orchestrating parcel deliveries, as an emergency medical transportation system, and to support commuter transportation.

Though Hyundai is best known for making cars and trucks, they have also jumped onto the drone bandwagon. For some time now, they have been working on developing an autonomous flying taxi, one that would need an airport of sorts to function. Partnering with UAP was a logical step in bridging the gap. Ricky Sandhu founded UAP in 2019, and as explained on the website, “We provide innovative ground infrastructure as a service for Future Air Mobility. An ultra-compact, rapidly deployable, multi-functional operations hub for manned and unmanned vehicles providing aircraft command and control, charging/refueling, cargo, and passenger loading and other mission specific facilities.”

UAP plans to build three different urban mobility ports. The first, which is what will be built in Coventry, is called Terra One. The other ports are Marine One (a floating port) and Air One (a rooftop port). All three models have primarily the same features, a dome shaped structure with a flattened rooftop. The rooftop opens to elevate an eVTOL (electric Vertical Take Off Landing) pad. Inside the structure, on the lower level, are areas for passengers and parcels to be processed and await flights. There will even be cafes, just like in a regular airport. The ports are all modular and can be moved from one location to another, causing some to refer to them as pop-up airports. And while these are set to be the world’s smallest airports, the structure is still rather large. The retractable eVTOL pad alone measures 131ft in diameter, larger than a standard helipad. From the images released by UAP, it seems that the ports can only support one larger passenger drone at a time. However, it stands to reason that in reality, these drone airports will be used to dispatch numerous smaller parcel drones.

The first Terra One drone port will be erected just outside of Coventry’s Ricoh Arena in a surplus parking lot. Mr. Budhdeo explained that Coventry was chosen for the site of the Terra Port as it is centrally located within England and has long been a big supporter of the country’s automotive and aerospace industries. Coventry has also become well known as a hub for embracing emerging technologies that support the UK’s economic green agenda. Speaking about the Richo Arena site, Mr. Budhdeo explained that its proximity to the M6 highway made it an ideal location within Coventry. “Lorries can dispatch their loads at the urban airport, which can then be transferred onto smaller drones and into the city center without congesting our roads,” he said.

With the government’s funding, Coventry’s Terra One is set to be up and running by November 2021. The idea of the drone airport being used to transport human passengers is still a way off, though NASA has projected that it will become a $500 billion industry once infrastructure like drone airports are in place. “The UK government is now very supportive of the air mobility sector,” said Mr. Sandhu. “It’s quite interesting because a few years ago the UK was the last place where you would think this kind of technology would be integrated, but actually, with the government’s economic green recovery and carbon net-zero targets for 2050, it has been propelled right up to the top of the agenda.” For now, Terra One will be used to prove the validity of drones for urban mobility, safely in shared airspace.