Last Wednesday, the first landing took place at the vertiport of Future Mobility Park (FMP). One of the driving forces behind this landing pad for drones and our own air mobility expert is Robin Provilij. A great opportunity to talk to him about this project and his love of all things flying.

Once upon a time, Robin dreamed of becoming a pilot, but even while imagining taxiing to the runway, he became more interested in the technology of flying machines than actually flying them. In 2014, he also had an epiphany about the future of drones.

"Just as the human immune system protects the health of the human body by detecting potential problems, I see drones as vigilant caretakers of our infrastructure by detecting signs of wear and tear, thus extending the life of our built environment."

Galileo stop M4H

And now it's all coming together with the vertiport at FMP. "The Galileo stop M4H is a fixed platform on which any drone can land and the first of its kind in the Netherlands. Drones can land anyway, that's not very special now, but in the future managing the landings is."

Robin's eyes already light up cautiously. "Think about the airspace of the future. The most common use case for drones is inspection. You can think of bridges, wind turbines and oil pipelines. In the future, they will be used for that as well, but it will have to be done in a more efficient, automated way."

For a moment, he stares into the depths, and in the reflection of his eyes, flying drones can be observed. "In view of BVLOS flights [outside the pilot's view], vertiports will be essential facilities, especially if the platform itself is more than just a space to take off and land. Therefore, we now want to focus on two things. Being able to reserve a landing pad and being able to charge drones."

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