A SCUNTHORPE-born man is flying high after launching a new company specialising in operating drones.

Richard Gill, operations director at Ocuair, has seen the potential in the unmanned air vehicles (UAV), which captures images with either a video camera or a still picture camera on board.

Ocuair specialises in operating drones in the media and industrial sectors and describes itself as “the UK’s leading responsible commercial UAV operator”.

Earlier this month, it filmed at the Party in the Pines festival near Appleby.

 Mr Gill, 35, originally of Bottesford, said the technology was something he looked at a year ago.

“I thought there was huge growth here,” he said.

“Drone videos are all over the place at the moment.

“My drone costs £10,000 and we have had to go through a lot of training.

“We are one of the only companies in the UK to put a proper thermal camera on a drone.

“This technology is useful in inspecting roofs, wind turbines or industrial sites.

“Being able to put a high resolution camera in a place where you would normally have to send a person is not only much more cost effective, but dramatically reduces risk to people.”

Mr Gill said the company has had interest from the emergency services and it is also doing a lot of work with mapping.

The drone industry is forecast to be worth £80 billion per year by 2020 and has the potential to employ 20,000 people in the UK alone.

Drones have recently hit the national headlines over privacy issues, but Mr Gill said this is a much larger debate.

“If you think about it, the biggest threat to privacy is Facebook and mobile phones,” he said.

Mr Gill attended St Bede’s and John Leggott College before studying Chemical Engineering at Leeds University.

After university, he joined the Army and served for 12 years as an officer in the Royal Logistics Corps, including tours of Iraq and Afghanistan.

He has now launched his business in Retford.

Mr Gill said it would be great to be able to develop some of the industry in North Lincolnshire area with the growth of offshore wind drones offering a way to conduct risk-free inspections.

Visit ocuair.co.uk for more details.