The United Kingdom’s 2017 Higher Education And Research Act led to the establishment of the government allocated United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), a conglomeration of nine departmental agencies into one unified organization. As stated on UKRI’s website, “Our mission is to convene, catalyze and invest in close collaboration with others to build a thriving, inclusive research and innovation system that connects discovery to prosperity and public good.” One of the biggest projects the UKRI has undertaken is the Future Flight Challenge. In September of 2019, UKRI declared that they would be holding an open competition in February of 2020 that would bring together innovators in drone technology. Winning ideas would be awarded funding from a £125 million government investment. These funds would be matched by up to £175 million from drone industry insiders.

With £300 million on the line, and a chance to make a huge impact in the world of aviation, many drone startups hurried to present their programs to UKRI’s Future Flight Challenge. Luckily, Future Flight participants were able to kick start the program right before the United Kingdom and the rest of the world entered extended periods of quarantine to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. As COVID-19 swept across the globe, the need for drone based technologies greatly increased. With the constraints of self isolation and social distancing, drones were needed to fill many gaps.

Within the first 6 months of quarantine measures, government agencies, corporate and private businesses, and more were relying on drones. These drones were being used to enforce social distancing, monitor the spread of the virus, deliver essential supplies, and maintain critical infrastructure. The Future Flight Challenge became the exact program needed to face the challenges of a global pandemic, driving innovation in drone technology. In November of 2020, UKRI announced that they had allotted an initial round of £33.5 million for 48 new projects to further the UK’s stake in the drone industry. UKRI also made the public aware that the first 20 of those projects, with £7 million in funding, would be commencing immediately.

The first round of projects in the Future Flight Challenge is set to lead the way for how the challenge is approached. The UKRI website explains that “The projects cover the use of drones capable of delivering COVID-19 medical supplies to remote areas, to technology to enable remote inspections of infrastructure and construction sites. The projects will also tackle key infrastructure and air traffic management challenges to ensure the UK maintains its exceptional air safety record and delivers practical and integrated solutions.”

Some of the winning proposals came from Windracers SWARM technology, Dock to Dock (D2D), NAPKIN, Drone Defence, Gold Dragon, Cornish Drone Airbridge, and MediDrone. These projects will focus on how drones approach COVID-19 demands, emergencies, BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line Of Sight), autonomous operations, and urban air mobility. One of the main benefits of the Future Flight Challenge is that it also addresses the UK’s environmental goals of becoming a zero carbon footprint society. Additionally, UKRI tasked Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) to audit the potential economic costs and benefits of the Future Flight Challenge. PwC released their findings in January of 2021 surmising that, “Our analysis suggests that in the majority of use cases there are significant potential benefits associated with the use of drone and air mobility technologies. The overall net cost of the use cases is between 20-48% lower than business as usual.”

By embracing and fostering advancement in drone technology, the UK is showing that they are ready to maintain their position as being world leaders in aviation. Over the last several years, drones have proven that they are tools for good. Tools that help protect, serve, educate, and keep people connected. Still, many people are wary when it comes to drones. For Gary Cutts, Director of the Future Flight Challenge, educating and preparing the public to accept drones is one of the challenge’s primary objectives. As he sees it, the technology is ready and progressing each day. The regulatory frameworks are catching up to what drones are capable of accomplishing. “For me, the single biggest hurdle after regulation in future flight is public positive acceptance of this,” Gary said. “What we don’t want is we create technologies that we think the public should want and we persuade them, and we coerce them into wanting them. What we want is pull, we want people to really see the opportunities that come from future flight, and demand of us things to come faster, more quickly. That’s really important.”