EASA experts' views on U-space, reliable detect and avoid systems, harmonisation between military and civil processes, and more
Hello drone enthusiasts!
It's time for another DroneTalks newsletter, and this time, we'll be covering Amsterdam Drone Week 2023 with 5 EASA experts!
That includes the following:
Watch all of the interviews below:
Interview with Natale di Rubbo, the Drones Project Manager (Open and Specific Category) at EASA
Natale di Rubbo took the chance to tell us more about European UAS operations outside of designated U-spaces, which was part of his workshop during Amsterdam Drone Week.
Natale also mentioned that to enable BVLOS operations at scale in Europe, a solution for integrating drone traffic with other traffic sources needs to be found, but they currently don’t have a reliable detect and avoid system that would be required for complex drone operations.
The process of creating U-space airspaces in Europe with EASA’s Drones Programme Manager Maria Algar Ruiz
During the interview, Maria gave us some exclusive insights into the thought process behind the implementation of new U-space airspaces from EASA’s perspective and what we can do as an industry to begin to come together to make wide-scale U-space airspaces a reality in the near future (along with what challenges we’ll need to overcome).
Maria also shared that EASA's workshop at Amsterdam Drone Week "Lessons learned of initial U-Space airspace designations and first SSP & single CISP certification projects" will bring together industry stakeholders to enable the drone industry ecosystem to share their experiences with what’s working and not working to empower the co-creation of future regulations.
She also hinted that new initiatives, workshops and webinars for upcoming regulations would soon be launched. These would help tackle the challenges our young industry is facing like the upcoming rapid digitisation, which will impact the creation of new U-spaces.?
Harmonising certification efforts across civilian and military drone operations
We had the chance to sit down again with Maria Algar Ruiz, who spoke about the need to harmonise civilian and military drone certification efforts because of how fast their political importance has grown over time.
During the interview, she also talked about the opportunity that harmonisation brings, so military drone manufacturers don’t need to undergo certification by each individual military authority, but could instead get something similar to the type certificate that civilian drones are able to obtain in order to operate across multiple European member states.?
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5G as a potential solution to enable connectivity and the recent European eVTOL demonstrations with Sascha Oliver Schott from EASA
During the interview, Sascha Oliver Schott told us about how EASA is facilitating a mutual understanding between telecommunications and drone organisations to support them as they look for solutions to enable airborne flight connectivity at scale. He also spoke about recent repetitive eVTOL demonstrations across Europe and how these can foster wide-scale acceptance.
He also spoke about how drone organisations are fostering the wide-scale acceptance of drones through repetitive eVTOL demonstrations throughout Europe, which he spoke about in his panel at Amsterdam Drone Week.?
Focusing on the societal acceptance of drones from all viewpoints with Kai Bauer from EASA
Kai highlighted the importance of proactively addressing issues raised by citizens and cities during our interview and explained how drone organisations could learn from the mistakes that happened during the implementation of e-Scooters throughout urban environments that caused a number of issues, including people running them into rivers.
Kai also told us about the three key takeaways for the drone industry when it comes to sustainable business models: (1) Develop concrete actions to tackle societal acceptance, (2) establish common standards and (3) ensure collaboration is at the core of all drone industry innovation efforts, encompassing all diverse perspectives that range from organisations to citizens.
Enabling the shift from crewed to uncrewed aircraft at scale with Giuseppe Scannapieco from EASA?
Giuseppe Scannapieco began by mentioning how the simple shift from taking the pilot from the air to the ground isn’t a substantial one, but you’re still missing an important element when it comes to the chain of safety. That’s why EASA is careful when it comes to how they enable these approaches and the regulatory framework that goes along with them.
There needs to be a significant shift in the mindset when the transition from airborne to ground-based operations happens, and one of these elements includes who will take responsibility for flight safety procedures, which is currently unclear. Giuseppe explained that, if something were to happen, the pilot might blame the manufacturer or the manufacturer might blame the operator for an accident. Current regulatory frameworks still need to catch up to account for this.?
Thank you to everyone who participated in the DroneTalks interviews during Amsterdam Drone Week 2023! We’ll be publishing them regularly on our YouTube channel, so make sure you subscribe to get notified when they’re released.
Best regards,
The DroneTalks team