Network Rail’s air operations team has completed a 25km drone flight over dry land – and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), meaning the operator remained in one place even after they could no longer see the aircraft. It is believed to be the longest civilian BVLOS flight.
The proof-of-concept flight took off from Bicester and flew along the East West Railway, and is the culmination of 18 months of work. Going forward, BVLOS drone flights will change the way Network Rail can inspect the railways.
In the past, Network Rail often used helicopters for inspections of large areas. Even as it started using drones more frequently, the flights were usually only 4km to 5km and the operator had to keep up with it, maintaining sight of the aircraft throughout.
With BVLOS drone flights, Network Rail will be able to cover larger areas with greater ease and safety, while reducing costs.
During this week’s record breaking proof-of-concept flight, a helicopter flew alongside the drone to see if the two could work in tandem, and it was found that they made an effective couple. The helicopter’s data will be used to create a digital twin of the railway it covered.
Network Rail head of air operations Rikke Carmichael said: “While flying Beyond Visual Line of Sight will ultimately provide us with much greater capability, it is worth emphasising that this was a proof-of-concept flight, and that a shift to using BVLOS as business as usual will take some time.
“Nonetheless, [it] was an important milestone and I’d like to thank my team for all their hard work on this project over the last couple of years. We’ll now turn our attention to agreeing a strategy for using drones both VLOS and BVLOS, after which we will want to engage with industry for the next exciting phase of BVLOS becoming another routine service the Air Ops team provides the business.”
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