The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has published
the first view worldwide on the use and control of drones in an
urban environment, balancing the desire to maximise the
commercial and convenience benefits of drones against the need to
ensure the safety and privacy of citizens and the potential
environmental impact on our cities.
The challenge of integrating drones into urban environments is
that these areas are already densely used by ground traffic,
other types of air traffic – such as commercial airplanes, other
civil aviation and police or hospital helicopter services – and
also people, concerned about noise, privacy and the possibility
of low-level flights causing accidental injury.
The term “U-space” has been adopted to describe the management of
unmanned aircraft traffic to ensure the safe interaction with
other entities using the same space in any location, not just
urban areas.
“We are already starting to see an increasing number of complex
flights undertaken by drones in various experiments across the
globe. Also, as everyone is aware, many companies have commercial
ambitions to use drones for deliveries or, looking further ahead,
to offer services such as air taxis,” said Patrick Ky, Executive
Director of EASA.
“This opinion proposes a
regulatory framework that will allow such services to co-exist
with all the other activities in our urban environments. The aim
is to ensure safe operations, while also creating the basis for a
competitive U-space services market, and establishing a level of
environmental protection, security and privacy that is acceptable
to the public.”
The opinion,
presented to the European Commission as a basis for future
legislation, lays down the first building block for the
establishment of the U-space in Europe. The initial scope is low
level airspace, densely-populated urban airspace and locations
close to an airport, with no attempt made to cover the airspace
in other areas. EASA expects to expand the scope as the market
develops and experience is gained.
One example of the measures it proposes is a Common Information
Service for exchange of essential information. This would offer
U-space service providers, air navigation service providers and
other participants in the U-space airspace access to the same
traffic data and airspace restrictions. This will help drone
operators to plan and execute their flights safely, knowing
exactly where and when their drone is permitted to
fly.
Together with the opinion, EASA
published a first set of draft content of acceptable means of
compliance (AMC) and guidance material (GM) to support drone
operators and EU member states in complying with the new rules.
The final AMC & GM will be published by EASA once the
European Commission has adopted the regulation and once the
necessary consultation with stakeholders has been completed.
