Great Britain has announced an ambitious new plan to increase the speed and efficiency of its national mail delivery service by introducing unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to handle the first leg of all future postal distribution.  Under the plan, 500 heavy cargo drones filled with packages and letters will fan out from major national and regional distribution centers to local post offices where uniformed carriers will sort the mail and deliver it directly to homes and offices using road vehicles or on foot, just as they do currently.

The plan’s intent, authorities say, is not only to expedite mail delivery, especially to more remote areas, but also to sharply reduce the postal service’s carbon footprint, enhancing sustainability.

If approved by Britain’s civil aviation authority, the Royal Mail plans to begin the new service a year from now with 200 drones serving areas like the Shetland Islands and the Hebrides that are difficult to reach with more conventional aircraft and road vehicles.

Royal mail officials say the new drones aren’t your typical remote delivery vehicles.  They are large (but pilotless) fixed-wing aircraft powered by two internal combustion engines that can carry cargo weighing up to 220 pounds.  Rather than hovering in place and winching down their small packages to precise landing spots, they’ll fly over a designated drop zone and land in a field, or if need be, simply drop their heavy cargo by parachute while continuing along their assigned flight path.  The planes can fly at speeds up to 90 mph and can stay airborne for as long as 25 minutes before needing to refuel, officials say.

Chris Paxton, who supervises the Royal Mail’s drone division, told the BBC that the aircraft were originally designed to deliver aid in Africa.

“They’re able to take off in a relatively short space and land in a similar short area. So they’re capable of landing on fields, providing that the area is flat enough,” he said.

“They are very much like a small plane. And the only difference is there isn’t a pilot on board.”

Another advantage of the new mail drones is their ability to fly in heavy fog. And while still relying on gasoline powered engines, their fuel costs will be lower, because the planes, while heavy by drone standards, are faster and lighter than conventional airplanes, officials say.  Without the need for trained pilots, labor costs will be cheaper, too.

The Royal Mail plan wasn’t developed in isolation.  It’s actually just one part of Project Skyway, Britain’s ambitious plan to develop the world’s largest drone “super-highway” to manage multiple fleets of drones to deliver cargo and perform aerial services in a wide range of commercial niches, including medicine, agriculture, construction and military surveillance.

Project Skyway is an attempt to “scale up” drone delivery operations from the current “last mile” delivery model that limits the scope of drone flights to small geographic areas and typically features one drone flying at a time on behalf of a single company and its customers.  By contrast, Project Skyway has been called a “middle mile” model that allows drones to fly more freely  – and even autonomously – while leaving most of the actual ground distribution and delivery to conventional road vehicles, including electric cars, bicycles and scooters.

Royal Mail’s drone partners include London-based Londonair, which already has begun daily mail deliveries to and from the Orkney Islands off the coast of Scotland.  Pilot testing across the UK is expected to last another two years before the Royal Mail asks national aviation authorities for permission to expand the model to the British mainland.  British authorities say they’ll have the new drone mail delivery service up and running by 2025.