Glasgow drone start-up Airspection has flown a shore-launched aircraft about 8.7 miles (14 kilometers) round trip over Liverpool Bay to a working offshore wind farm and back, entirely beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS). The company announced the flights on October 6 as one of six projects in the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s BVLOS sandbox.
Amazon Prime Air, which has since asked the CAA to fly across all of Darlington, is in the same cohort. The pitch is a drone that launches from the beach, so no crewed vessel has to carry people and equipment out to the turbines. Airspection also says that, within limits, its aircraft gets more efficient as the wind picks up.
Airspection Spent Two Years Building the System the CAA Wanted
Airspection’s flights come after two years of work with the CAA’s Innovation and Test and Evaluation teams. The regulator selected its six sandbox projects on August 15, 2024 and runs the program with UK Research and Innovation to gather the safety evidence for routine BVLOS flight.
The other four are the National Police Air Service, air traffic provider NATS over the North Sea, Project SATE in Orkney and Project Lifeline for medical deliveries. Airspection says it built the safety, communications and flight operations system along with the aircraft, and the CAA counted the company among its new sandbox authorizations in the Test and Evaluation report DroneXL covered in June, when the UK had logged 1,672 BVLOS flights.
Ed Clay, Head of Technical Strategy at the CAA, said the company’s data “will help in the development of the UAS-supporting policies” the regulator is writing through its Future of Flight Programme. The Offshore Wind Growth Partnership helped fund the Liverpool Bay work.
Airspection’s CAA Filing Points to the Burbo Bank Wind Farm
Airspection’s announcement names neither the wind farm nor the flight dates. Its airspace change proposal to the CAA, ACP-2025-001, asks for a Temporary Danger Area inside the Burbo Bank Transponder Mandatory Zone in Liverpool Bay, reached from the coast through a separate corridor.
The filing describes a staged plan, launching from a crewed vessel first and then from land. It requested operations between October 2025 and March 2026, with a possible extension of up to 12 months, and scheduled the shore-launched phase for January to March 2026. Local site Wirral Today reported drone trials linked to Burbo Bank launching from Moreton Shore on August 3, 2026, without naming the operator.
Airspection Says Its Drone Hovers on 40% Less Power in Strong Wind
Airspection designed the aircraft to hover in strong wind the way a kestrel holds its position, working with the wind instead of fighting it. In its testing at 22 to 27 mph (10 to 12 meters per second), hover power dropped about 40%, good for roughly two-thirds more flight time.
The release cites no independent test of the hover figures. The company estimates the shore-launched approach saves up to 50% against standalone inspection campaigns, cuts about a metric ton of CO2 equivalent per turbine and improves site access by up to 25%. A support vessel can burn more than 50 gallons (several hundred liters) of diesel an hour, according to the release.
Airspection says the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult assessed the commercial case on reference UK wind farms and found vessel-free drone inspection could cut costs substantially against conventional rope-access methods. The release quotes no figure from that analysis. Managing Director Matthew McLean, who co-founded the company in 2022 out of his work as an aero-mechanical engineering student at the University of Strathclyde, said: “We proved it around offshore wind, but it applies to any remote infrastructure.” Airspection is now looking at railway route checks after storms and power network surveys.
DroneXL’s Take
Airspection’s own airspace filing asked the CAA for a Temporary Danger Area that is “fully segregated” whenever it is active, and it planned the shore flights inside that area. That is the closed-off airspace the sandbox exists to retire, so I wouldn’t call Liverpool Bay routine BVLOS yet. It does show Airspection can run an offshore operation the regulator will approve, inside a box built for it, and that is real progress for an inspection drone. Range was never the hard part, because Austin-based Skyways flew 50-mile round trips from a German port to the Arkona wind farm with cargo in October 2025. Wind farm owners need to see the same run with the danger area switched off and the drone sharing Liverpool Bay with other aircraft.
Sources: Airspection press release (October 6, 2026), UK Civil Aviation Authority, CAA airspace change proposal ACP-2025-001, Wirral Today.
DroneXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo. Read our editorial standards.
