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- Understandable flight: the world's first helicopter port has been put into pilot operation in Russia
Understandable flight: the world's first helicopter port has been put into pilot operation in Russia
Russia has created a heliport - an automated station for charging batteries, as well as launching and receiving helicopter-type UAVs. It was put into pilot operation at the beginning of 2025; now the heliport is being tested at a specialized site in St. Petersburg. The technology makes it possible to launch a helicopter on a mission autonomously, without the presence of an operator on site. Customers from the Middle East are already interested in the station. The developers assure that the system has no analogues in the world. "Izvestia" found out whether this technology is really unique and to whom it will be useful.
What is a heliport
Russian companies Rusdronoport and Radar MMS have developed a heliport, an automated station for charging batteries and launching and receiving helicopter-type UAVs. This is a new kind of droneport, said Nikolay Ryashin, CEO of the company and market expert of the National Technology Initiative (NTI) Aeronet.
- No one in the world has ever made a helicopter port for a drone of comparable size, and even more so for a helicopter-type UAV. The apparatus allows the helicopter to be launched on a mission autonomously, without the presence of an operator on site. The droneport stores the drone inside - on the right day and time it opens, a helicopter flies out of it, realizes, for example, a monitoring mission and returns back. Inside the heliport it recharges, transmits the collected data to the server and prepares for the next flight," Nikolay Ryashin told Izvestia.
The created heliport is adapted to the unmanned aircraft (UAV) "BT 30E" and is delivered together with the device. The drone's maximum payload is 7 kg, maximum flight duration is 1.5 hours, cruising speed is 55 km/h, flight range is 40 km. The developer is also engaged in the creation of a new generation helicopterport, which will be compatible with other unmanned helicopters of domestic production with takeoff weight up to 30 kg inclusive.
According to Nikolay Ryashin, the helicopterport is currently undergoing pilot operation at the "Radar MMC" site in St. Petersburg.
As the developer explained, there is no data that industrially operated or at least prototype droneports for unmanned helicopters have been made in the world. Perhaps there are classified developments. According to him, customers from the Middle East are already interested in the new technology , and now the company is considering export deliveries of helicopter droneports.
Why droneports and heliports are needed
Droneports will help large operators save tens of millions of rubles a year in labor costs. By large, we mean the industrial sector, mining companies, petrochemical companies, and so on, says Maxim Tomskikh, general director of Dronshab Group.
- First of all, droneports, including helicoports, will be in demand in areas where there is no possibility to organize permanent human work or the performance of work is dangerous to health or extremely costly. These solutions can also be used to organize search and rescue operations, or work in places of emergency," he said.
According to Andrei Novikov, deputy dean of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University's Faculty of Special Machine Building, the development will help agriculture - several such helicopters can be placed on agricultural land and carry out regular monitoring and data collection.
Also, such drone ports will find application in the energy sector for systematic monitoring of power lines - it can be security, control of territories. These systems can be useful for rescuers to, for example, conduct regular monitoring of coastal zones and promptly provide assistance. These are only isolated examples; potential applications could be much broader, the expert believes.
- This is another step towards increasing the flexibility and autonomy of unmanned aircraft systems, which will help attract more investment in this industry. And this, in turn, will push for the creation of even more advanced systems, - said the expert.
Thedevelopment will first of all be in demand for urban air logistics, believes Anton Blik, General Director of Flying Trucks. He reminded that at the moment in Russia it is not allowed to fly over cities, only on rare routes outside populated areas. Therefore, the development has great export potential, for example, if companies want to enter the Asian market, he believes.
- No one has yet publicly announced the creation of a heliport for helicopter-type drones. The project has export potential, first of all - in friendly countries of Asia and Africa, interested in the development of unmanned segments of their economies, - said Nikolay Ivashov, representative of Fly Drone.
As he noted, there are several scenarios for using the helicopterport: these include monitoring missions of all kinds, aerial logistics, search operations, and ensuring the security of various facilities.
However, not all experts consider the technology innovative. There is nothing fundamentally new in the technology, it is just a kind of droneport, says IT expert Sergey Pomortsev.
