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Duncan Walker of Skyports said that "vertiports" will become as common as facilities for bicycles or cars in the near future, as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) become prevalent for deliveries and transportation.
"I can see it being absolutely commonplace," said Walker, who is managing director of Skyports. "Just as we were designing bike parking spaces into buildings five years ago, I can see drone ports becoming standard in buildings."
Elevation, Dezeen's recent documentary about how drones will change cities, predicts that delivery and passenger flights will become common in the near future. Walker agreed that the movie's predictions are realistic, saying that these developments are "on the very near-term horizon."
Skyports is acquiring rooftop spaces in London that it will eventually convert into vertiports – facilities for aircraft that take off and land vertically – once the regulatory barriers to urban drone flights have been cleared. Walker expects this to happen within just a few years.
The startup has already bought the rights to 15 rooftops in London. "We want to scale that up to 80 or 100 over the course of the next 18 months," Walker said.
Skyports has appointed London-based architect Barr Gazetas to work on designs for its vertiports, which could be located on any building type, with multi-storey car parks, office buildings and railway stations among the properties already signed up by the company. The ports will include facilities for recharging as well as loading and unloading.
Switzerland leads the way
In Switzerland, vertiports are already being used on a daily basis to service drones carrying medical supplies between laboratories and hospitals, Walker said.
"Landing pads are an integral part of the urban landscape in Lucerne, Lugano, Bern and many other places already. There are 500 drone flights a month in Switzerland. It's becoming the norm there for certain use cases."
Reference : https://www.dezeen.com/2018/08/23/skyports-barr-gazetas-london-rooftops-vertiports-drones-technology/
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