The Sustainable Aviation Test Environment (SATE), part of the UKRI Future Flight Challenge, has established the UK’s first operationally based low-carbon aviation test centre, based at Kirkwall Airport on Orkney. Led by the Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership (HITRANS), SATE brings together a national consortium of industry partners, public sector bodies and academia which work with a range of regional businesses and stakeholders to apply state-of-the-art aviation technology to deliver targeted economic growth.
While the SATE facilities are based at Kirkwall Airport, SATE is working across several Highlands & Islands communities and matching the new technology with practical use cases to benefit the region.
Since its launch in November 2020, SATE has secured successive rounds of Innovate UK funding, reflecting the programme’s continued growth and impact. The project began under Future Flight Challenge Phase 2 (SATE 1), establishing the test environment and delivering landmark early demonstrations including hybrid-electric flight and autonomous drone logistics. This was followed by Future Flight Challenge Phase 3 (SATE 2), which deepened technical capabilities and expanded use cases across the region. Most recently, SATE has been awarded funding through two strands of the Innovate UK Future Flight Programme: the Regional Demonstrator strand, supporting the Highlands and Islands Regional Pathway to Sustainable Aviation — a project developing a regional strategy and commercial roadmap for new aviation technologies — and the Strategic Growth strand, supporting ALBUM (Advanced Logistics BVLOS UAV Mission), which is focused on advancing autonomous drone logistics towards routine commercial operation.