National Drone Initiative Launches Fourth Phase

Israel’s National Drone Initiative has launched the fourth phase of its pilot program, which this time will include night operations as well as flights in which cargo will be delivered directly via winches to the end customer.

NDI began flights over urban areas in January 2021, resumed trial flights on Sunday, involving several companies that manage and operate autonomous drone networks.

For the next two weeks, flights will take place day and night above Gush Dan and Yerucham, in order to integrate the use of drones in routine activities such as transportation of basic products, first aid; deploying a drone attached to a vehicle for real-time monitoring of traffic movement with AI-based elements that can provide forecasts, and much more.

Eyal Bilia, Ayalon Highways Acting Vice President of Technology and Innovation, noted the contribution that drone service can make to traffic and transportation management:

“Research has found that 20 percent of the congestion problems in city centers stem from the movement of small goods. Therefore, the deployment of drones can assist in two ways – through monitoring and analysis and the operational aspect of creating new transportation lanes that will ease the existing congestion while building regulation that will support their ongoing operation in general areas of urban transportation.”

The companies participating in the trial: High-Lander Aviation, Flightops/Simplex Interactive, HarTek Technologies, FlyTech, Airwayz Drone, Skylinx Technologies, Blue White Robotic and Wonder Robotics.