UK’s first permanent vertiport opens near Snowdonia

Now open for drone and eVTOL testing, the UK’s first permanent vertiport has been constructed at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre.

Known as a permanent or temporary automated launch and landing (Portal) system, the vertiport was designed and installed in late June by Bristol-based tech firm SLiNK-TECH. The Portal is a drone-agnostic system which “scans the air and the ground” to guide drones through launch and landing minimising the need for a pilot. It can be installed permanently as is the case in Snowdonia, or the system can be deployed in about two hours for temporary use. 

“The opening of the vertiport in Llanbedr [about 10 miles from Snowdonia] allows us to provide the first UK testbed for the UK drone and eVTOL industry and will support future flight testing for operations,” John Goudie SLiNK-TECH CEO told Revolution.Aero. “Our aim is to make this first vertiport location a test centre of excellence for eVTOLs to use as part of their journey towards highly automated flight operations.”

The SLiNK team is currently testing the system in Llanbedr and hosted a soft launch of the system last week. 

“We are excited to invite industry partners to collaborate with us in testing out our vertiport and we hope to advance automated operations for these partners,” added Goudie.

Snowdonia Aerospace Centre will act as a testing facility for drones and eVTOL aircrafts, initially beginning with trials. SLiNK will also work alongside electric charging systems specialist Aerovolt at the vertiport.

The centre has been a “key partner” for SLiNK during the project to develop Portal, as well as the UK’s Future Flight Challenge, according to Goudie. It also has a permanent danger area which allows for complex flights not permitted elsewhere. “For these reasons, Snowdonia felt like a natural choice for our first vertiport,” he added.

The idea for the Portal system first emerged in 2018 when Goudie saw a niche in the market. “Lots of focus had been put into the development of eVTOLs and large vertiport infrastructure but there was little development around automation technology and making future flight sustainable and commercially viable,” he said.