(VitalNews.org) – Amazon, along with six other organizations, have been selected to take part in a trial that would expand the use of drones in the United Kingdom.
The country’s Civil Aviation Authority announced that the experiment would involve integrating roles that don’t fly within sight into the U.K. Airspace. Here, flights would use advanced technologies for navigation, control, and to detect other aircraft as well.
Sophie O’Sullivan, director of future of flight at the U.K. CCA, said, “Our goal is to make drone operations beyond visual line of sight a safe and everyday reality, contributing to the modernisation of UK airspace and the incorporation of new technology into our skies.”
This trial will help to gather data about how the drones detect and avoid other aircraft. The flights “have the potential to transform how we deliver goods and provide services, particularly in less well-connected regions,” said Simon Masters, a future flight challenge deputy director at U.K. Research and Innovation.
Prime Air, Amazon’s drone delivery service, was a project of Jeff Bezos who laid out the plans for this service more than a decade ago. At the end of last year, the company stated that drone delivery would be available to Italy and the U.K this year, but they don’t currently have permission to operate drones in the United Kingdom.
Prime Air has launched in the United States for packages that are weighing up to five pounds in one city in California and one city in Texas. However, a large number of people in the Prime Air department were laid off in the United States as part of the largest round of layoffs for the company in history.
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