In November 2018, in response to widespread frustration at the speed of development of the UK drone industry, a group of companies, formed into an ad-hoc group to develop a strategy paper which would allow the drone industry to rapidly commercialise.
The white paper, entitled the ‘Commercialisation of the UK Civil Drone Industry has now been issued to Government and published receiving national and international praise for its approach.
The Drone Delivery Group was conceived and led by Robert Garbett, Chief Executive of Drone Major Group which advises companies around the world on the application of drone systems across all environments. Robert's initial aims of addressing a single key topic, which if not resolved, would inevitably hold the industry back by years, have since been surpassed. So, what next for what is obviously a much-needed industry initiative?
Drone Major has established the Phoenix Programme to deliver one of the key recommendations of the white paper, that of drone test and development areas designed to deliver capability to the user community and enable the drone industry to evolve from trials to commercialisation.
Drone Major has created a unique model designed to deliver the next logical step for those developing and wishing to adopt drone technology.
The Phoenix Programme consists of a growing range of projects which each focus on an industry sector, application or region. Each project is designed to deliver to the needs of the user community rather than deliver specific technologies. In addition, projects are industry led and funded to ensure a long term, commercial approach to the delivery of drone capability.
This unique approach ensures that projects only exist to deliver capability where it is required, utilising appropriate and mature technologies where available and developing new systems where required. Projects are not trials but long term initiatives to move inexorably to a commercial reality for the drone industry.
