Swiss air navigation service provider skyguide and AirMap announced the launch of a trial phase for automated flight authorizations and other U-space services for integrating drones into the Swiss national airspace.
For the period of the trial, hand-selected operators will be able to request automated and manual flight authorization to fly in controlled airspaces within the cantons of Lugano and Geneva. The skyguide authorization services build upon AirMap’s experience in the United States with the FAA’s Low-Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) program.
“Digital and automated airspace authorization is a critical enabler for scaling high-value drone operations,” said Ben Marcus, AirMap co-founder and Chairman. “We’ve experienced this first-hand through our work with the FAA in the United States, and we are proud to be working with skyguide to bring this capability to the Swiss drone community.”
AirMap and UpVision are working with the Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic (ANS CR) to enable Smart Sky, the country’s strategy to enable and support the safe operation of drones and drone-related services. Launched in 2018, Smart Sky outlines the Czech Republic’s natinowide strategy for UAS integration, from regulation and infrastructure to UAS Traffic Management UTM. Operators within the CR will be able to access U-space services powered by AirMap with UpVision providing translation with UpVision providing translation services to promote UAS education and research in the field.
“Fulfillment of the ambitious goals arising from our Smart Sky concept depends very much on the experience, enthusiasm, and competence of all cooperating partners,” commented Jan Klas, Director General of ANS CR. “Therefore we (ANS CR) appreciate very much that AirMap and UpVision are supporting us on this journey.”
Honeywell will be partnering with AirMap to develop a cost-effective, hardware-based drone tracking solution to provide airspace safety authorities with situational awareness of manned and unmanned aircraft operations within an airspace system. The hardware system will support multiple communication options, including 4G and satellite in areas without 4G coverage, for the broadcast of real-time drone, telemetry feeds to a UTM system. The tracker device is available today as a proof of concept.
Fortem Technologies and AirMap will collaborate to provide an integrated solution that allows for the safe operation of drones with geofences while also enforcing no-fly zones in cities, around airports, and other critical infrastructure.
Fortem’s SkyDome technology will detect airborne objects and share this information with the AirMap UTM platform to match objects against known operations, which will help them determine uncooperative actors in the airspace. Rogue aircraft will be alerted to the authorities or the Fortem DroneHunter. AirMap will also use Fortem TrueView radar data to enable safe Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight Operations within the Specific Operations and Risk Assessment (SORA) framework.
“Fortem digitizes the airspace above and around infrastructures, campuses, venues, and cities, to enable safe and reliable drone services,” said Timothy Bean, CEO, Fortem Technologies. “Our low-cost, networkable system supports USS like AirMap to pave the way for drone package delivery, autonomous people transportation, and general urban air mobility.”