Coventry Launches “Urban Ascent”: Flying Taxis and Drone Deliveries Are Coming to the West Midlands

What’s actually planned?

• Urgent medical deliveries between hospitals (blood samples, organs, radioactive medicine)

• Rapid delivery of defibrillators to cardiac arrest incidents

• Aerial inspection of bridges, roads, and infrastructure

• Live overhead monitoring of traffic accidents and congestion

• Laying the regulatory and technical groundwork for eVTOL urban air taxis (electric vertical take-off and landing “flying taxis”) to replace costly helicopter transfers

Councillor Jim O’Boyle, Cabinet Member for Jobs, Regeneration and Climate Change, said: “We want Coventry to be at the forefront of aligning cutting-edge technology with real public need. This isn’t science fiction – we’re talking about drones flying life-saving medicine between hospital sites in minutes, or giving emergency services an instant bird’s-eye view of major incidents.”

Real trials are already happening

Earlier in 2025, Coventry-based Skyfarer successfully partnered with University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust (UHCW) to test drone delivery of radioactive medical isotopes – proving the concept works in a regulated UK environment.

Urban Ascent will now scale those learnings city-wide and prepare the airspace management systems needed before passenger-carrying eVTOLs can operate commercially (think 15-minute hops across the West Midlands instead of crawling along the A45 in rush hour).

Mariya Tarabanovska, Innovation Lead for Future Flight at Innovate UK, called the project “a textbook example of local government, industry, and academia coming together to safely integrate new aviation services that will directly benefit communities and boost economic growth.”

With Coventry already home to the UK’s first permanent drone superhighway testing corridor and a growing advanced air mobility cluster, the city is positioning itself as Britain’s launchpad for the urban air revolution.

Don’t be surprised if, in a few years, your next ambulance ride isn’t on four wheels – it might arrive silently from above.

Source: BBC News – Rachel Russell, West Midlands