The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for the first time approved a point-to-point domestic flight of an unmanned aircraft that utilized the UK’s airways structure when General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) flew its MQ-9B SeaGuardian Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) from Lincolnshire, England to Moray, Scotland on Sept. 12, 2021. The GA-ASI-owned RPA flew from Royal Air Force (RAF) Waddington to RAF Lossiemouth and the SeaGuardian flight was controlled by NATS, the UK’s civilian Air Navigation Service Provider.
SeaGuardian is the maritime version of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian (Picture source: GA-ASI)