Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.
Issue link: https://insideunmanned.epubxp.com/i/470284
49 unmanned systems inside Spring 2014 air company that follows the rules and not a 'cow- boy' that just ignores them," Cosyn says. "Some countries, including the U.S., do not al- low commercial applications. Others have rules with strange requirements, typically borrowed from manned aircraft, have no rules but a case- by-case procedure, or have rules that are clearly directed by local UAS manufacturers and as such protecting their market." "Harmonization," Cosyn says, "will be key to making this market a success." And with that, we are all back on the same page. "Due to the status of the regulations," Cosyn concludes (and the economic downturn), "Eu- rope is definitely not the big market at the mo- ment, but can well become one of the main mar- kets in the future." National to European Erika Billen is a communications, navigation, and surveillance engineer at the BCAA and the person responsible for allowing operators to fly UAVs in Belgian airspace. She says she faces two main challenges today: First, "Dealing with illegal UAV operations," and second, "Convincing the authorities—the Ministry of Transport, and civil and military air navigation service providers—of the need for full integration of UAVs. Because of the applica- tions and the needs in society, we need to move as quickly as possible toward operations in all conditions." Billen is one of the people who understands the urgency, and not just for her country. "We are taking a step-by-step approach, but we do not want to spend 20 years on it. The market will not accept this at all." She is about helping Belgians and others ex- ploit the new UAV opportunities: "We allow test and demonstration f lights to facilitate the development of these new op- portunities," she says. "We also allow training f lights for student pilots. The next step will be to try to eliminate the issues around air navi- gation service provision, to integrate UAVs more and more into Belgian airspace." On the other hand, Billen is realistic about the larger issues. "It is important to underline," she says, "that asking every individual [EU] Member State to make its own national legal framework is very inefficient and very time consuming. It ends up in fragmentation, which is very inconvenient for the operators and puts a brake on the free movement of goods and services within the Eu- ropean Union." The EU RPAS Roadmap So where is Europe? Seeking to form a more perfect Union. The EU, led by the European Commission, is moving toward a better and all- encompassing regulatory framework for UAVs (remotely piloted aircraft systems, or RPAS—in EU parlance). Between 2009 and 2012, the Commission conducted a broad stakeholders' consultation to examine the economic impact of, and to identify the obstacles to, the development of civil UAV applications. Among other things, the consultation conclud- ed that UAVs need to be integrated as swiftly as possible into the European air system, requiring necessary EU aviation regulations to be put in place. Thus was born the Commission's "Road- map for Safe RPAS Integration into European Air System," or simply, the RPAS Roadmap. The Commission believes that solid business cases for UAV operations require internation- alization beyond national markets, with a true European "single market" for RPAS based on common rules as the ultimate goal. However, with 28 independent member states that have to act in concert, nothing is likely to happen quickly. The Roadmap's Regulatory Work Plan identi- fies 27 regulatory improvements to be achieved within various timeframes, running all the way out to 2028. Based on previous experience, this 2028 target could stretch well into the 2030s if not beyond. ...the EU, led by the European Commission, is moving toward a better and all- encompassing regulatory framework for uavs...