A British heavy-lift drone company has signed an agreement with a Scottish transport body aimed at expanding unmanned air cargo operations across the Highlands and Islands.
Windracers, which designs and manufactures large cargo drones, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS) to explore how drone logistics could support remote communities and industries across the region.
The partnership will focus on identifying practical use cases for unmanned aircraft systems, including supporting economic activity, improving access to services, and reducing transport bottlenecks in areas where geography and distance can create significant challenges.
Windracers said the agreement builds on several years of drone trials already carried out across the Highlands and Islands, including work funded through Innovate UK’s Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) programme. The MoU is intended to take the relationship beyond demonstration activity and toward a longer-term operational model, potentially supporting what the company described as a regularly scheduled commercial autonomous cargo service.
Windracers Chief Executive Simon Muderack said the company’s work in the region had already demonstrated safe operations, and that closer cooperation with local partners could now allow the transition toward a more routine service. “By working closely with local partners, we can now take the next step towards a world first: a regularly scheduled commercial autonomous air cargo service that complements existing transport and delivers lasting benefits for communities and businesses across the region,” he said.
HITRANS said the Highlands and Islands was particularly suited to the development of drone cargo services because of its dispersed population and reliance on aviation links to access healthcare, education, employment and essential supplies.
HITRANS Partnership Director Ranald Robertson said the work could eventually support rapid delivery of medicines and improve logistics for time-sensitive industries such as seafood and aquaculture. “These pioneering UAS projects could bring improvements for residents and visitors, as well as revolutionising logistics for businesses and healthcare by by-passing traditional transport bottlenecks,” he said.
Innovate UK said the agreement reflected wider government efforts to move drone technology from trial programmes into scalable commercial activity. “As home-grown Future Flight technologies, supported by Innovate UK, move from research and development into commercialisation and scale, they are poised to deliver transformative impact,” said Simon Masters, Deputy Director for Future Flight at Innovate UK.
