Transport / Touchdown! Large drone lands in Fair Isle after flying from Orkney
Watch a video of the drone’s approach and landing below
A LARGE drone has flown from Kirkwall to Fair Isle and back as part of a new trial – and it was even greeted by a group of local residents on its arrival.
The Windracers drone flew the route, which is around 60 miles each way as the crow flies, on Tuesday.
It is the same drone which was recently used by the Royal Mail to deliver letters and parcels to the island of North Ronaldsay in Orkney.
The Fair Isle trial is taking place to allow Windracers to gauge how the drone performs over longer distances, so no mail was carried.
It is all part of the Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE) project at Kirkwall Airport, and it is using a large twin-engine unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
Windracers, which provides transportation services to the humanitarian aid, research and environmental protection sectors, aims to also carry out further flights in Shetland next year.
The large drone can fly up to 2,000ft and it is said to be able to operate in poor weather conditions.
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