2024年天空无界：英国无人机行业增长潜力与商业机遇研究报告（第三版）（英文版）-62页_4mb

Skies Without Limits v3.0: UK Drone Industry Update

Introduction & Overview:
The report evaluates the progress of the UK drone industry from 2021 to 2024, utilizing case studies from 10 organizations featured in the previous v2.0 report. While growth has been recorded, it has not consistently met expectations or unlocked the full potential envisioned by SWL2, partly due to regulatory hurdles.

Key Findings & Growth Trends:

• Overall Growth: Mixed results; some organizations report faster than expected growth (e.g., Windracers reaching automotive-style production scale), often fueled by international demand rather than the UK market.
• Commercial Volume: Few organizations have achieved sustainable, commercial-scale operations within the UK, despite some progress in specific use cases like VLOS inspections (driven partly by favorable international factors).

Key Barriers Analysis:

1. Perception: Showed the most improvement, with most organizations reporting more positive client and stakeholder attitudes towards drone solutions (overall trend positive, moving towards green).
2. Implementation: Shows mixed results, but many organizations have successfully integrated drones into their business-as-usual processes (notably detailed via PwC's 4-step workflow: Authorization, Capture, Processing, Sharing).
3. Regulation: Remains a major barrier (lowest % green). Regulations are viewed as slow, complex, and limiting (especially for BVLOS) compared to other countries; processes are lengthy (e.g., UK permits vs US approvals), increasing funding challenges. Overall trend for regulation is flat or slightly negative.
4. Technology: Generally rating has improved (over 60% green), reflecting advancements in UTM, autonomy, and sensors, although significant challenges remain. UTM (Uncrewed Traffic Management) holds promise but requires enablement.
5. Skills: While a majority (~64%) see issues or some issues, most view this as unchanged. This is likely due to measured growth, not skill shortage resolution, though competition for talent (especially specialized drone engineers/AI tech) is noted.

Organizational Insights:

• MCA (Maritime): Significant progress in daily BVLOS surveillance, but regulations severely restrict operational scope and emergency response.
• Windracers: Scalable international growth ("automotive-like" drone manufacturing), but slower UK progress hindered by approval delays for BVLOS over low-populated areas.
• Manna: Technological and regulatory progress in Ireland and the US enables positive unit economics, but expansion into the UK faces stricter regulations and uncertain public acceptance for last-mile delivery.
• sees.ai: Secured UK's first permit for non-segregated BVLOS power line inspections, progress hampered by funding constraints until market demand grows.
• Cyberhawk: Global revenue growth >100% (US/Middle East focus), citing UK regulatory inefficiency as a major constraint. Seeing UK SORA introduction positively, but differences in risk allocation exist.

Conclusion & Recommendations:
The UK drone industry has made progress but has generally lagged behind global developments and the SWL2 adoption curve expectations (as of Jan 2023). Key barriers like overly complex regulations hinder the industry's growth and prevent achieving commercial volume within the UK. Recommendations include:

1. Adopting a use-case led regulatory approach to target resources effectively.
2. Streamlining the regulatory process for BVLOS operations, simplifying permissions, and addressing complex airspace coordination. Ensuring perception allows operators more freedom (like SORA).
3. Investing in UTM and digital infrastructure.
4. Developing better training programs and potentially adjusting qualification levels.
5. Harmonizing regulatory approaches with international counterparts.

Disclaimer: Summary based on report analysis.