UAV cross-Solent challenge
Dr Stephen Prior and his PhD students Mehmet Ali Erbil and Mantas Brazinskas from the University of Southampton are hoping the weather allows them to fly a drone, also known as an unmanned air vehicle (UAV), across the Solent to the Isle of Wight on Friday night (9 May). The flight will be captured in a live TV broadcast by BBC South.
"It's a big challenge for us as we believe this is the first time that such a flight has been attempted using a multi-rotor," he says. "We will be keeping an eye on the forecast, because we won't be able to fly in rain or strong winds."
Stephen, a Reader in UAVs within the Aeronautics, Astronautics and Computational Engineering Design unit, and his team have been preparing for the attempt for three months. The drone will fly at about 80 metres above the waves following the route of the cross-Solent hovercraft, starting at 18.40 hrs from the mainland; it should take about 12 minutes to fly the 4.4 miles from Southsea to Ryde.