IT is known as the “gateway to the isles” and is the hub for many of the main ferry routes from the mainland.

Now, Oban is to be the home for a major new drones hub that will see unmanned flights making more frequent and quicker deliveries to the islands.

The hub will be a high-tech base for electrically-powered drones – transporting medicines, biological samples and cargo between the mainland and the Hebrides. It will also operate beside a world-leading training facility that will be built nearby.

A UK Government investment of £170,000 from the Community Renewal Fund will be used to develop the business case for the West Coast Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Innovation Logistics Hub and a drone-flying academy beside it.

Argyll and Bute Council is now working in partnership with Skyports, the drone-landing infrastructure design and delivery company, to develop plans.

The hub will build on a Skyports initiative that used drones to fly thousands of medical materials, weighing up to 13lbs (6kg) each, between NHS facilities on the islands over a three-month period last year, saving more than 12,000 hours’ waiting time.

Royal Mail is also interested in UAVs as part of its service delivery and has undertaken trials with Skyports from Oban out to the island of Mull.

Another application being explored is the use of drones to inspect and maintain offshore windfarms.

UK Government Minister For Scotland, Iain Stewart, said: “The potential of this innovative project is hugely exciting. Drones are playing an increasingly important role in everyday life, no more so than in Argyll and Bute, where pioneering drone usage is taking place.”

The plans also include working with the Oban-based Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), one of Europe’s leading marine science research organisations with skills in UAV technology.

The hub will also work in tandem with SAMS and Skyports’ proposal for Europe’s first all-weather drone-training academy.

The national indoor test facility for UAV will have the capability for aircraft testing, pilot testing, pilot, and flight crew training. The academy, which will also provide an indoor testing facility to train the drone pilots of tomorrow, will be protected from the weather but the roof will also be “radiotransparent”.

Radiotransparency enables drones being flown indoors to “see” the GPS, satellite communications and beacons they require to operate properly.

The academy will enable unmanned aircraft to be tested and their pilots trained all year – whatever the weather – enabling scientists, researchers and commercial enterprises to benefit from a multi-billion-pound drone industry.

SAMS is also working with the European Space Agency on using short-wave infrared cameras to detect marine plastics from the sky.

The academy would enable the expensive equipment to be tested indoors on drones before being launched into space.

Similarly, the academy would make it easier to test the sophisticated cameras and drone kit that SAMS will use to monitor harmful sea algae that can affect the seaweed harvest and other aquaculture enterprises.

Dr Phil Anderson of SAMS, who has pioneered the use of small robotic aircraft to monitor the polar ice cap, said: “This building will be a one-off. We don’t think a facility such as this exists anywhere else in the world. Being able to train people in the winter and having the facilities at Oban Airport will boost jobs in the community, develop drone technology and help save the planet.”

A study by PwC has forecast the drone industry could be worth £42 billion to the UK by 2030.

Oban Airport is an ideal location because it has the potential for a 3.5-hectare business park to be developed. Having council owned land available for purchase or rent will allow the business park to grow into a drone incubator for all drone related companies.

Another application is likely to be using drone-borne sensors to predict plant disease and drought by measuring the sunlight reflected from vegetation.

Alex Brown, director of drone services at Skyports, said: “In 2021, we transported Covid-19 tests, pathology samples and medicine up to 50 miles between NHS medical facilities in the Argyll and Bute region of Scotland – saving the NHS over 12,000 hours of waiting time from their supply chain. “Alongside the flight trials, we have been working with Oban Airport to undertake technical due diligence on how a drone innovation hub could be incorporated into the airport that would support permanent drone operations to service the Highlands and Islands and which will create skilled employment and investment in the area, and improve mobility and services to rural communities.”