Fog delays at airports could soon disappear if a Christchurch start-up's idea takes off.
Millions of flights worldwide are delayed or cancelled by fog every year, but the solution could be a drone.
Pyper Vision is being backed by the Government to develop a drone capable of grounding fog instead of planes.
While in the air, the coffee table-sized drone releases a substance into the sky designed to soak the fog up.
"It just flies over the final approach of an airport, so it's a 10-minute operation and we can get hours' worth of visibility over the critical area that pilots and air traffic controllers need," Pyper Vision CEO Emily Blythe said.
"The absorbent itself mimics a natural dispersal of fog. It absorbs the moisture in the air as it falls to the ground."
The need for this technology was made clearer this week with hundreds of flights in and out of Wellington cancelled.
"It's worth billions as an opportunity worldwide if you can solve it," Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods said.
Airports are usually a no-fly zone for drones and can even ground flights too. But the Government partnership allows Pyper Vision to do more research and testing through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Airspace Integration Trial.
"There's a number of things that are going to use airspace besides planes and helicopters and we've got to work out how they all work together," Woods said.
If planes and drones can share the sky, it could lead to a successful journey into the commercial market.
"We wanted to bring it into market at an affordable level so that a regional airport could afford it, but so could a large airport like San Francisco, for example," Blythe said.
More testing of the drones is scheduled.
