UK's Royal Mail to Deliver Post by Drone on 50 New Routes
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UK's Royal Mail to deliver post by drone on 50 new routes
The UK's Royal Mail has announced plans to open 50 postal routes serviced by delivery drones over the next three years as part of a wider objective of deploying over 500 UAVs to carry letters and parcels to remote localities in the country.
Royal Mail said drone delivery of post will initially be introduced to the Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands, Hebrides, and the Isles of Scilly. That latter destination was selected by the 507-year-old public service last year to first trial postal flights by UAVs between Cornwall and the archipelago, located 30 miles to the south. Since then, Royal Mail has additionally operated test programs to Scotland's Isle of Mull and Orkney Islands.
Most of those Royal Mail trials have been in partnership with drone delivery and air taxi infrastructure company Skyports, which operated the Mull flights after earlier transporting medical materials to far-flung UK destinations during spikes in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pending approval from the UK's Civil Aviation Authority, Royal Mail will start phasing in postal drone deliveries across more than 50 designated routes in coming months. It will operate flights with drone manufacturer and service provider Windracers, which participated in earlier trials.
The company's 10-meter, fixed wing UAVs can carry up to 100 kg of post over a maximum range of 70 miles. The craft were used in a trial last month to the Orkney island of Unst, flying 50 miles each way.
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