Helicus supports the U-Space Kick-off at Droneport in great company

An impressive consortium of aviation companies (see below) has kicked of an ambitious project within the EU tender framework as issued by the SESAR JU. The aim is to demonstrate an Air/Unmanned Traffic Management concept (UTM = U-Space). The concept should be capable of handling multiple concurrent drone operations that is robust and implementable throughout Europe. A broad range of smart mobility operations and services will be demonstrated, including flights within and Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (VLOS and BVLOS). Manned and unmanned flights will be interacting within the same airspace. These complex operations will be prepared at the DronePort integrated test facility, to de-risk the operations and prepare the demonstration flights above the City of Antwerp.

Relating to its challenging objective, this EU project is called SAFIR - Safe And Flexible integration of Initial U-space services in a Real environment. The Unmanned Air Traffic Management concept is of critical importance to Helicus Aero Initiative, for which reason our support to SAFIR is granted to the fullest. This project forms our first phase in a trajectory to provide safe and future oriented medical transport solutions to Helicus customers.

The demonstrations will soon get underway, thanks to funding from the SESAR Joint Undertaking within the EU's Connecting Europe Facility programme. With a co-financing of EUR 9.5 million, the demos aim to illustrate that Europe is on course with its implementation of U-space, an initiative that aims to ensure safe and secure drone traffic management.

SAFIR partners: Availlant / Thales, Amazon, Unifly, SABCA / Dassault, Helicus, Proximus, Droneport, PortOfAntwerp, skeyes (previously known as Belgocontrol), C-Astral, Elia, High Eye, Tekever

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