Estonian drone ecosystem takes first steps towards implementation of U-space

• Estonian Air Navigation Services (EANS) and Frequentis will launch new drone platform, enabling users to reduce manual tasks such as pre-flight authorisation.
• Frequentis platform to further support Nordics and Baltics in implementation of U-space framework for drone services market.

EANS has been working with Frequentis to create an environment where drones and civil aviation can coexist in the shared airspace. The drone market is already growing rapidly and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are used for everyday activities. This requires user- system for both manned and unmanned traffic and all this with flight safety in mind.

“One of our strategic goals is to develop a U-space framework and to support the state activities on advancing unmanned aviation sector in Estonia. EANS will take the role as a single Common Information Services (CIS) provider in Estonia, which offers a secure open protocol for data exchange between all stakeholders, enabling a competitive, innovative, and open market for U-space service provision,” says Teve Rahula, EANS Head of Business Development. “This will enable the drone services to thrive as we are able to increase efficient and safe access to airspace. For this reason, EANS is collaborating with Frequentis to realise the implementation of U-space in Estonia to advance the emerging uncrewed traffic management (UTM) UTM ecosystem.”

The cloud-based UTM system is provided as a managed service in the Frequentis cloud environment, allowing validation of use cases and business cases. The cloud architecture also enables a fully optimised deployment process, without the need for on-site activities. The UTM system complies with the requirements of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/664 (draft) on a regulatory framework for the U-space.

“The Frequentis CIS platform allows the integration of all airspace users on one single platform, providing a single source of truth and real-time situational awareness for air traffic controllers, drone operators and service providers. This integration allows both crewed flights and drones to safely share the same airspace, to see airspace restrictions and flight rules, file flight plans, and receive updates from air traffic controllers in real time. This is what is needed for the safe integration of drones into the aviation ecosystem,” says Guenter Graf, Frequentis Vice President New Business Development.

Frequentis has been working together with EANS and other stakeholders in the Nordics & Baltics region on the SESAR GOF and GOF 2.0 projects, exploring the safe integration of drones in the Gulf of Finland, trailing and validating use cases in line with U-space regulatory framework.

Meet us at Airspace World in Geneva, stand F17, March 8-10, 2023, stand F17.

For more information, please visit www.frequentis.com