CAA-Approved Chorley Trial Demonstrates Shared BVLOS Airspace Using Different UTM Systems

A consortium involving ANRA Technologies, Wing, Manna Air Delivery and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service has completed a CAA-approved demonstration of shared drone airspace in Chorley, Lancashire.

ANRA announced the results on 9th November 2026. The operators carried out both Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) and Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) flights within the same Temporary Danger Area (TDA), using different Uncrewed Aircraft Traffic Management (UTM) systems to coordinate their activity.

The important point is that the operators did not all need to use the same UTM provider. Their systems exchanged flight intentions so that potential conflicts could be identified before flights took place.

The demonstration was approved by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). It is evidence of progress towards interoperable traffic management, although it does not establish a general permission for multiple operators to conduct BVLOS flights in non-segregated airspace.

How did the demonstration work?

ANRA provided UTM services to Manna and Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service. Wing used its own UTM system.

According to industry reporting on the demonstration, the providers exchanged flight intentions using the ASTM F3548-21 interoperability standard, with automated interoperability testing through the InterUSS platform.

This is an example of strategic deconfliction. Operators share their intended flight volumes and times in advance, allowing the systems to identify conflicting plans and support coordination before aircraft are launched.

Strategic deconfliction is not the same as tactical detect-and-avoid. It can reduce the likelihood of planned conflicts, but it does not independently resolve every unexpected airborne encounter or remove the need for other mitigations.

The project brought together two drone delivery operators and an emergency service. That combination is relevant because a scalable UTM system must account for different operational priorities, including situations where emergency-service aircraft need access to airspace already being used commercially.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's Drone Manager, Tim Murrell, said the project was helping the service examine how lower airspace could be prioritised for critical operations while allowing other users to operate safely.

What did the CAA approve?

The CAA approved the digital airspace coordination approach used in this particular demonstration. It did not announce a general approval for routine shared-airspace BVLOS operations throughout the UK.

The flights took place within TDA EGD391, established for BVLOS RPAS activity around Chorley.

AIP Supplement 051/2026 states that the TDA was established because the CAA considered segregation necessary for the BVLOS operations. The supplement covers 29th May to 29th November 2026, with activation notified by NOTAM at least 24 hours in advance.

The associated airspace change proposal is ACP-2025-038, sponsored by ANRA Technologies. Its stakeholder engagement document describes a trial of UTM services supporting coordinated BVLOS operations around Chorley, intended to inform future CAA UTM policy.

The distinction matters. Several operators sharing one segregated volume is a different regulatory challenge from those same operators routinely sharing non-segregated airspace with other airspace users.

Why use different UTM systems?

A single-provider UTM demonstration can show that an individual system can manage its own participating operators. It does not necessarily show that operators using competing services can coordinate with one another.

In practice, commercial operators, emergency services and infrastructure organisations may select different UTM providers. Requiring everyone to use one platform would create a dependency that becomes harder to manage as the number of operators grows.

The Chorley project tests whether flight intentions can be exchanged through common interfaces and interpreted consistently across systems.

That introduces questions beyond the technical message format: which service is responsible for a conflict, how an operator receives and acts on a change, what happens if one provider becomes unavailable, and how urgent flights are accommodated.

The consortium says its ongoing work covers technical interoperability, operational procedures, governance, onboarding additional participants and alignment with the CAA's regulatory approach.

What has the CAA said?

Giancarlo Buono, the CAA's Group Director for Safety, Airspace and Regulatory Group, described the demonstration as an important step towards interoperable UTM in the UK.

The CAA's statement, published in ANRA's announcement, says the project will contribute evidence towards routine BVLOS operations and future airspace modernisation.

That is an endorsement of the demonstration and its potential value to policy development. It is not confirmation that the same operating model can already be adopted elsewhere without further approval.

What does this mean for UK operators?

For operators pursuing BVLOS permissions under UK SORA, Chorley provides a useful example of how strategic airspace coordination might be supported by interoperable services.

However, UK SORA applicants still need to demonstrate that their proposed operation meets the applicable air risk requirements, including the effectiveness of any airspace and collision-risk mitigations they rely upon.

A successful UTM demonstration does not automatically establish a recognised means of compliance for a particular air risk mitigation or Operational Safety Objective. Any reliance on UTM services would need to be supported by evidence appropriate to the proposed operation and accepted by the CAA.

The project is also relevant to emergency services, which may need to operate at short notice without being constrained by routine commercial flight schedules. The consortium has identified governance and operational priority as areas for further development.

What happens next?

ANRA says the consortium intends to continue working with the CAA, add further operators and UTM providers, and develop a repeatable approach that can be used at other locations.

The next useful evidence would be details of how conflicting flight plans were resolved, the handling of contingency situations and emergency-service priority, the performance of the interfaces between providers, and how these arrangements could operate without the protection of a TDA.

For now, the Chorley demonstration establishes that multiple operators using different UTM systems have coordinated live BVLOS and VLOS activity within CAA-approved segregated airspace. Extending that approach to routine integrated operations remains a separate regulatory task.

Further information is available in ANRA's project announcement, AIP Supplement 051/2026 and the ACP-2025-038 engagement document.