UK: Open Skies Cornwall Completes “Ship-to-Shore Trial Flights in Falmouth Harbour,” Paving Way for Atlantic Maritime Delivery
Drones flew over the UK’s first ‘drone-friendly’ harbour in Falmouth last week as part of ship-to-shore flight tests carried out by Open Skies Cornwall, reports a press release.
The release explains, “The flights are part of a series of trials testing Falmouth Harbour’s ground infrastructure, flying capabilities and airspace for future maritime-focused drone activities, such as emergency medical, food bunkering or maintenance supplies deliveries. Following the successful conclusion of these trials, Open Skies Cornwall’s aspirations are to fly sorties for real-world use cases to large civilian vessels at strategic moorings in the harbour and to intercept vessels up to 50 miles offshore in the Atlantic Ocean/Celtic Sea, providing additional resilience connectivity to maritime workforces at sea.”
These trials identified four landing locations in Falmouth Harbour, where sensors were employed to test key infrastructure in the harbour as well as monitor aircraft movements and back-end software updates. The release continues, “New landing locations and flying routes along the Cornish coast towards Truro were also visited thanks to facilitation work along the upper reaches of the Fal Estuary by Port of Truro and Cornwall Council.”
Gareth Whatmore, CEO of DronePrep and project lead for Open Skies Cornwall, commented, “Ship-to-shore flights offer huge potential to add value for Falmouth Harbour’s community, but it’s important we work closely with all stakeholders to ensure those innovations operate safely and integrate smoothly with existing infrastructure. These trials are essential for designing and testing infrastructure and procedures specific to Falmouth Harbour.”
He continued, “Providing maritime drone services on a regular basis means identifying suitable take off and landing locations that will work for the harbour during the busiest times of the year and including this information in the Drone Delivery Register. By identifying the best solutions for this environment, we can also prepare for long-distance, Atlantic capability within airspace that is integrated for both drones and conventional aircraft. This is currently being worked up via the Sky-Highways conops in partnership with the Civil Aviation Authority.”

Falmouth Harbour
Open Skies Cornwall is a research and development project involving nine industry-leading companies (Cornwall Council, DronePrep, Falmouth Harbour, JHUBMED, Neuron, NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, Royal Mail, Skyports, University of Southampton). Together, they aim to unlock four Cornish airspace environments for the next generation of unmanned aircraft while establishing a network of ‘Skyhighways’ to connect remote communities via drones.
Led by DronePrep, the project has received UKP2.4 million in funding from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Future Flight Challenge. This funding will be used to build ground and landing infrastructure, establish unmanned traffic management sensor networks, commission new unmanned aircraft, and establish Skyhighways to support medical and commodity delivery for the NHS, Royal Mail, Cornwall Council, JHUBMED, and multiple users of Falmouth Harbour.
Miles Carden, CEO at Falmouth Harbour, remarked, “The efficiency, safety and environmental benefits of using drones for commercial maritime activity are very exciting and could potentially drive significant additional economic value to Falmouth. We hope to accelerate the planned tests and use today’s operations as a springboard for new activity right through 2024.”

(Skyports Drone — Credit: Open Skies Cornwall)
Rhys Gittoes, Open Skies Cornwall project lead at Skyports Drone Services, added, “Our flights in Falmouth Harbour are part of our broader efforts to demonstrate, trial and test use cases for drone services across the UK. The first step, delivering to a pontoon in Falmouth’s estuary, is an important milestone that we will build on throughout 2024, with both our Open Skies Cornwall project and other ongoing UK flight programmes.”
Background
The UK Research and Innovation Future Flight Challenge is a UKP300 million program, co-funded by government and industry, that is supporting the creation of the aviation ecosystem needed to accelerate the introduction of advanced air mobility (AAM) drones and electric sub-regional aircraft in the UK.
Delivered by Innovate UK and the Economic and Social Research Council, the program works with industry, academia, government, and regulators to transform how we connect people, transport goods, and deliver services in a sustainable way that provides socio-economic benefits using new types of air vehicles with novel technologies.
For more information
https://future-flight.bsigroup.com/clubs/8‑open-skies-cornwall/
(Top image: Team at Open Skies Cornwall)