FeaturedNews

Skyports Drone Services completes successful drone delivery proof of concept with Japan’s Kaga City Council

Sky­ports Drone Ser­vices has suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed a drone deliv­ery proof of con­cept (PoC) in part­ner­ship with Kaga City and Kane­mat­su Cor­po­ra­tion, which has part­nered with Kaga City since 2021 for pro­mot­ing region­al revi­tal­i­sa­tion through the use of drones and aer­i­al vehi­cles.

Trans­port­ing sim­u­lat­ed blood and oth­er mate­ri­als of up to 3kg between Kaga Med­ical Cen­tre to loca­tions at Kaga Onsen Care Cen­tre and Yamana­ka Onsen Nuku­mori Clin­ic, the PoC flight paths mir­rored actu­al high demand trans­port routes and sought to estab­lish the time and cost sav­ings that can be achieved with Beyond Visu­al Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone oper­a­tions.

The event was marked with a cer­e­mo­ny attend­ed by Riku Miyamo­to, May­or of Kaga City, and invit­ed guests that includ­ed busi­ness lead­ers and key stake­hold­ers from and beyond Kaga City.

May­or of Kaga City Riku Miyamo­to said: “Kaga City believes that the PoC demon­strates the strong poten­tial of drone tech­nol­o­gy in bridg­ing press­ing logis­ti­cal chal­lenges.

“With this first step, we look for­ward to fur­ther col­lab­o­ra­tion to expand on the types of ser­vices and deliv­er­ies we can pro­vide to the com­mu­ni­ty in Kaga, and set a stan­dard for the rest of the coun­try.”

Sky­ports Japan coun­try man­ag­er Atsushi Oka­da added: “Japan has a diverse land­scape that encom­pass­es moun­tain­ous ter­rain and thou­sands of islands and water bod­ies, mak­ing it a prime loca­tion to ben­e­fit from drone tech­nol­o­gy.

“Our drone deliv­ery oper­a­tions have proven their impact in address­ing logis­ti­cal chal­lenges and with each suc­cess­ful PoC, we are build­ing on our reper­toire of capa­bil­i­ties and proven use-cas­es.”

Fol­low­ing an in-depth plan­ning phase that includ­ed con­sul­ta­tions with and approvals from the Japan Civ­il Avi­a­tion Bureau (JCAB), and sig­nif­i­cant on ground sup­port and knowl­edge from Kaga City, the PoC flights were designed to assess the fea­si­bil­i­ty and impact of BVLOS drone deliv­er­ies in enhanc­ing speed, con­nec­tiv­i­ty and safe­ty in the deliv­ery of med­ical sup­plies to remote and hard-to-reach areas in the region.

The flights effec­tive­ly demon­strat­ed the abil­i­ty of drone deliv­er­ies in reduc­ing trans­port times by over 50 per cent as com­pared to move­ment via land trans­port. It also pro­vid­ed valu­able insight towards devel­op­ing frame­works for eval­u­at­ing and select­ing take-off and land­ing sites, as well as map­ping opti­mum flight paths that account for both high lev­el air­space users and ground ele­ments.

It also account­ed for envi­ron­men­tal fac­tors such as tem­per­a­ture fluc­tu­a­tions with tem­per­a­tures rang­ing between 2 and 9 degrees Cel­sius, as well as rain, snow and wind con­di­tions.

Sky­ports signed a Mem­o­ran­dum of Under­stand­ing in 2021 with Kane­mat­su Cor­po­ra­tion for the even­tu­al launch of com­mer­cial AAM oper­a­tions in Japan.

In 2022, Sky­ports devel­oped of a Con­cept of Oper­a­tions in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Eve Air Mobil­i­ty for the JCAB. In Octo­ber 2022, Sky­ports opened its local Japan office in Tokyo, and appoint­ed Atsushi Oka­da as its Coun­try Man­ag­er.

Avatar photo

Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

eVTOL Insights is part of the Industry Insights Group. Registered in the UK. Company No: 14395769