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Solid progress is being made in consolidating a Concept of Operations for European UTM systems

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Unmanned aircraft systems

Some two hundred participants attended the 3rd CORUS U-space workshop, hosted by ENAV SpA at the Rome ACC premises, to discuss and consolidate the proposed European U-space Concept of Operations.

Taking the SESAR Joint Undertaking U-space Blueprint and the ATM Master Plan update as a basis, the project presented the proposed U-space services and airspace integrated use to the CORUS U-space community network (CORUS UCN).

The CORUS UCN also discussed:

  • the proposed high-level services architecture together with relevant safety-related issues;
  • the societal aspects (including liability, privacy and data protection as well as ethical concerns);
  • research and development activities required for U-space deployment.

The main goal of the workshop was to ensure that the needs and views of all stakeholders are taken into account in the development of the CORUS Concept of Operations that will encompass all services required for the safe integration of drones in the European airspace.

The main workshop conclusions were:

  • unanimous consensus on the fact that solid progress has been made;
  • CORUS has identified some key issues and is on course to produce a useful outcome.
Andrew Hately, CORUS Project Technical Coordinator, Giancarlo Ferrara, RPAS/UTM Senior Expert, and Luca Bellesia, CORUS Project Coordinator at the third CORUS workshop in Rome.
From left: EUROCONTROL experts - Andrew Hately, CORUS Project Technical Coordinator, Giancarlo Ferrara, RPAS/UTM Senior Expert, and Luca Bellesia, CORUS Project Coordinator.
© Unifly

“The services and the operations identified by CORUS ConOps are defined in a way that shows how they can and should be used together to enable safe drone operations while balancing the needs of the drone sector with those of society as a whole,” observed Andrew Hately, EUROCONTROL’s CORUS Project Technical Coordinator.

In closing the workshop, Luca Bellesia, EUROCONTROL’s CORUS Project Coordinator, remarked: “It is encouraging for us to see the interest raised by CORUS and the wide number of participants contributing to the consolidation of the European U-space ConOps. This workshop has shown that we are moving in the right direction and that there are high expectations on the results of our project.”