Starting point at pilot started on a drone flight in field

Air traffic - civil drone types

It's easy to lose track of the different types of drones. Here are the three main categories.

Drones and the U-Space service provider b.r.m. | Early spring hums in the air

Drones U-Space Service Provider b.r.m.
Drones U-Space Service Provider b.r.m.

March 20th marks the beginning of spring in the meteorological sense. Birds, bees and other insects will soon begin to roam our skies, but not only them. Drones or UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) have already become part of the airspace, not only as a hobby for RC enthusiasts, but also for the U-Space Service Provider b.r.m. .

The EASA has been working for some time on the cornerstones for coordinating civil drone aviation throughout the EU. To this end, the establishment of a new airspace, the so-called U-Space, is being prepared. Alongside other airspaces (such as the Gulf), U-Space is intended to enable manned and unmanned aviation to coexist.

U-Space - space for drones

A separate airspace just for drones is a difficult undertaking. After all, all aircraft have to land and take off, and any risk of collision must of course be avoided at an early stage, especially over conurbations. For this reason, the current concept of U-Space is designed to cause as little inconvenience as possible to other manned aircraft. The drones should register with a corresponding U-Space Service Provider (USSP) in the established U-Space and thus receive information on traffic information and other services that are necessary for safe operation. EASA is currently in the discovery phase in order to include transponder-free flight participants. Under the term iConspicuity, existing technologies such as ADS or Mobile are to be used to make every flight participant a conspicuity. This information can then be used to avoid a dangerous approach in advance.

What is a U-Space Service Provider?

The USSP (U-Space Service Provider) will be used at the interface between unmanned and manned space flight. It will provide various services to enable drone operators to navigate safely through U-Space. The core tasks will be the processing of "flight authorization" and "strategic de-confliction". Strategic de-confliction ensures that the submitted flight plan is checked for conflicts in the airspace.

There will of course be a service for registering the drones so that both the USSP and the authorities can access the status of the UAV. In addition to the relevant traffic information, consideration is also being given to which other services are useful for drone operators.

Outlook 2022 - What we can expect

Before the end of the first half of this year, the EASA intends to issue regulations on how the "iConspicuity" visualization of manned aircraft can be implemented in a meaningful way without introducing additional equipment or even a transponder requirement. We would then be a good deal closer to the permanent establishment of U-Space and civil drone traffic would already be within reach.

In the meantime, the UAS/UAV test center is being further expanded at the Oldenburg-Hatten airfield. Take a look at our current VTOL EGM project and visit the website of our project partner Optoprecision.