The structure of the national drone policy (Germany) is as follows
- Goals of the Federal Government - The objectives must always be clearly laid out before proceeding to the next step. They provide the direction to focus on
- European and National Legislation towards UAS - After underlining the goals, what’s the next step? To understand what can be done within the established law. For that, is it important to review the EU law
- New UAM concepts - Once the goals are underscored and awareness about the law on UAM is obtained, it is time to see what we can do with UAM and how to implement it into reality from concept
- Geographical Zones - The goals direct you, the law tells you your scope, the concepts show you what you can do to realize the goals, an understanding of the geographical zones shows you where you can apply it all
- U-Space and U-Space Reality Lab - This may be an implementation of a Digital Twin. If so, this is an important connection between Industry 4.0 and Advanced Air Mobility
- Lessons Learned
Goals of the Government
- Become the leading market in the EU with high safety standards
- Protect personal data, privacy, and the environment
- Put automated and interconnected flying into practice
European and National Legislation towards UAS
These are the EU regulations that have to be followed
- Regulation (EU) 2018/1139 on common rules of civil aviation
- Regulation (EU) 2019/947 on the rules and procedures for the operation of unmanned aircraft
- Regulation (EU) 2019/945 on UAS and third-party operators of UAS
- Germany - National Law on the adaptation of regulation (EU) 2019/947
Geographical Zones
Part of EU regulation 2019/947 (see paragraph 21h), this is defined as
A portion of airspace that facilitates, restricts, or excludes UAS operations
In the context of UAM, a geographical zone shouldn’t be confused with literal geographical zones. Rather, they are “snippets” of airspace where unmanned aircraft may or may not operate. A snippet would only be a geographical zone if some laws and regulations concerning UAS are in effect
- What are the UAM geographical zones within other countries like India?
- How are such zones decided? What are the factors that play a role?
- Is there a central platform available to readily identify UAM geographical zones around the world, or at least in a given country? Digital platforms are the answer such as Germany’s U-Space
U-Space
All data within the U-Space airspace is transferred to a certified Common Information Service Provider (CISP). The CISP then transfers information to other service providers in the U-Space that then communicate and handle aircraft operating in the zone
To gain an understanding of how the U-Space airspace would be like practically, the U-Space Reality Laboratory was installed in Hamburg The EU Regulation 2021/664 provides the framework for developing the concept for establishing the U-Space airspace. U-Spaces will not be deployed in rural areas because it doesn’t make sense and isn’t required
Obstacles for UAM
- Risk assessment according to SORA
- High traffic density in most urban settings (emergency missions etc.)
- Geographical zones (presence of other geo-zones inside, thus conflicting airspace authority)
- Ground infrastructure (smooth integration and minimal interference)
- Digital infrastructure (how to implement it at scale?)
- Public acceptance