7 March 2023
A white paper issued by the drone industry is calling for Electronic Conspicuity to be made mandatory for all aircraft by 2025.
The call is one of four recommendations made by the BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) Operations Forum in the paper, ‘South of the Clouds – a roadmap to the next generation of uncrewed aviation’.
They are:
The white paper was issued by Russell Porter, chair of the Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) operations forum and also Head of UTM (Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management) Stakeholder Engagement at NATS. In his introduction, Mr Porter said, “The route to provision of services through BVLOS flight operations is currently both difficult to navigate and time consuming to complete. Airspace integration is key – enabling all to share the air and maintain the current high levels of access.
“Whilst the safety case for uncrewed and crewed aircraft to fly in the same airspace is being developed and evidenced through flight trials, it largely remains necessary, in the short term, to segregate uncrewed aircraft from those with pilots onboard.
“As such, routine, scalable BVLOS operations, the key step towards commercial sustainability, are currently unachievable.”
1 comment
I take it that the drone operators calling for EC to be mandatory will be more than happy to pay for us all to have it?
I would like to make it mandatory for drones to have a workable, automatic avoidance system – or not fly amid crewed aircraft at all. I’m fairly sure all of us fear a large number of deaths will follow the introduction of drone delivery flights – both pilots and people on the ground. And, after that, of course, a series of protracted, expensive and devastating legal battles for compensation.
PS the drone operators are asking the govt for a ‘road map’. What does that tell you about their knowledge of the air?