The world's first helicopter port was put into pilot operation in Russia

In Russia, a helicopterport - an automated station for charging batteries, as well as launching and receiving helicopter-type UAVs - was put into pilot operation in early 2025. The device is now being tested at a specialized site in St. Petersburg.

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The innovative technology allows launching 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. At the same time, the creators of the heliport themselves assure that this system has no analogues in the world.

"No one in the world has ever made a heliport 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 an operator on site. The droneport stores the drone - on the right day and time it opens, the helicopter flies out of it, realizes, for example, a monitoring task and returns back. Inside the heliport, it recharges, transmits the collected data to the server and prepares for the next flight," Nikolay Ryashin, an expert of the National Technological Initiative (NTI) Aeronet market, told Izvestia.

The drone's maximum payload is 7 kg, maximum flight duration is 1.5 hours, cruising speed is 55 km/h, and range is 40 km.

Read more in the exclusive material of Izvestia:

Understandable flight: the world's first helicopter port has been put into trial operation in Russia