UK’s first permanent vertiport unveiled in North Wales
Above: SLiNK-TECH's system, PORTAL.
Courtesy SLiNK
Bristol based SLiNK-TECH designed the first vertiport of its kind in the UK, the launch of which marks a significant milestone for the UK drone industry.
Snowdonia Aerospace Centre (SAC) purchased PORTAL from SLiNK-TECH in January and completed installation last week. The advanced landing solution is highly automated and provides integrated flight management at any location.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with SAC to bring this innovative new system to the UK,” said John Goudie, CEO of SLiNK-TECH. “Our PORTAL vertiport system is a game-changer for the future of flight, and we are confident that our installation at SAC will provide significant benefits to testing of future use cases.”
To mark the occasion industry leaders and policymakers will be travelling to Llanbedr for the PORTAL Party, an event featuring state-of-the art demonstrations and expert talks over two days. The addition of a vertiport to its site highlights SAC’s commitment to encouraging innovation and supporting technological advancement in the UK.
CEO of SAC, Lee Paul, said: “Snowdonia Aerospace is excited to be supporting SLiNK-TECH with the testing of the PORTAL vertiport concept and we look forward to working together to create a legacy capability at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre for the drone and air mobility communities to test and train in an archetype of future UK lower airspace management”
PORTAL was installed at SAC at the end of June and will be used for testing and trials at the site.
Founded in 2018, SLiNK-TECH Ltd (SLiNK) is a Bristol, UK-based technology company which has been developing an advanced, safe, low cost and highly automated landing solution, pioneering drone and vertiport automation solutions built to scale the future of flight economy, enabling automated drone launch and landing with minimal infrastructure in any environment.
Snowdonia Aerospace LLP operates the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre, Llanbedr, Gwynedd, the premier commercial UK test centre for next-generation aerospace including 'drones-for-good'. They have also established Snowdonia Aerospace Drone Services Ltd. to further develop and commercially exploit the output of their research.
Both SLiNK-TECH and Snowdonia Aerospace Centre are members of the UK drone association, ARPAS-UK.
