This proposal is for an Airspace Trial, for which a scaled airspace change process applies and a change level is not applicable.
With approximately 26% of Scotland’s population living in remote or rural areas spread across 69% of the land mass, service delivery can encounter constraints which contributes to treatment inequity. NHS Scotland encompassing the Territorial Boards and Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) views the adoption of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or drones as an opportunity to transform the patient experience and reduce the impact of traffic congestion and CO2 emissions.
The project will deliver a Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for the transition to fully integrated UAS operations at a national level. This specific workstream, led by NATS will develop and publish a phased approach outlining proposed airspace constructs and detailing regulatory and technology gaps required to enable the transition. Elements of this CONOPS will be validated through live flight operations, differentiating CAELUS from other projects by seeking to move the industry forward by proposing and validating a method of operations that are fully integrated and sustainable.
We aim to utilise volumes of segregated airspace across Scotland in a total of 5 locations to enable us to prove elements of our proposed future concept of integrated airspace. For this proposal, we intend to fly in the Grampian region representing use cases for North NHS Innovation board and Scottish Ambulance Service. The use cases will require the airspace to be in place for a maximum of 8 weeks with expected flying during 4 of those weeks. Our proposal is that we activate the segregated airspace for limited duration. The airspace dimensions and duration of activation will be informed by stakeholder feedback. This segment of flying will be undertaken by Skyports. A system of ADS-B Receivers will be deployed to demonstrate an additional layer of situational awareness to the UAV pilot along the flying routes and contribute to the Detect and Avoid solutions that will form part of the demonstrations.
