Taking off from the Blackpool airport in England, a drone owned by a private company called FlyLogix, set a British record last week after successfully completing a 50-mile offshore beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) round trip. On its trip, the Condor drone inspected an unmanned platform in Morecambe Bay operated by one a British utility company. While drone operations in England are highly regulated much like they are in the U.S., operators of the Condor’s mission were given special permission to fly BVLOS. Otherwise, the Condor stayed below 100 feet –meaning that during its flight, it had to avoid tall buildings and hills, which it did successfully. This is one of the first times that a drone has operated at low altitudes to a specific site, carried out a mission while being manned by an operator who was operating BVLOS (as opposed to the drone being pre-programmed to fly and take a specific route). This flight demonstrated the capabilities of drones for long-range offshore service for inspections and logistics, an area of the commercial drone industry which is sure to grow.

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