Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), and more specifically Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), are increasingly becoming a part of our day to day lives. The vast range of possible uses is creating a new industry with a large economic potential.
The technological developments are being developed at a much faster pace than that for manned aviation. The challenge lies in integrating the worlds of manned and unmanned aircraft in a safe and efficient way, as both types of aircraft will use the same airspace. As most regulations have been put in place as a reaction to market developments, harmonisation has not been achieved and this also affects the ATM perspective.
The RPAS Concept of Operations (CONOPS), describes the operations of RPAS in European Airspace that are capable of meeting the requirements set per airspace classification including Very Low Level (VLL) operations. The CONOPS is presented from an air traffic management (ATM) perspective and is fully complemental to the EASA CONOPS.
This 24 page document, entitled “RPAS ATM CONOPS”, was published by EUROCONTROL this month and is now available here.