In the past few years, drones and air taxis have both taken their turn in the spotlight. The frequency of food and online shopping deliveries has brought drone delivery discussions to the fore, and the Paris Olympics generated talk about how air taxis could be used for large events in urban areas.* Flying cars are making test flights, and people are going into space as tourists. The possibility to live a life from science fiction (“meet George Jetson”) gets closer and closer, and more people start to speculate on what the future of aviation will look like every day. In Practical Aviation & Aerospace Law, Scott Hamilton and Sarah Nilsson offer one vision:
The year is 2043. You’re standing on the sidewalk in a city with tall buildings, but there are trees everywhere. You smell the faint grassy smell of a freshly mowed lawn. Overhead, against a crisp blue sky speckled with tiny cirrus clouds, are hundreds of aircraft. Most are small uncrewed aircraft they call drones; others are larger, about the size of a car. Many of them are fully automated with no pilot on board. Some carry packages, whereas others carry passengers. You prefer to call them flying robots. In the far-off distance are larger aircraft, running on electric battery-packs, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), or hydrogen. Some of these do have a pilot on board. This is not the prelude to a sci-fi novel [but] a sneak peek into vision behind the concepts of operations (ConOps) of most industrialized nations’ aviation authorities. The Europeans, Canadians, Japanese, and Australians, to name a few, also have one, but let’s focus on the American one.
In 2018, the FAA NextGen Office released an initial overarching ConOps version 1.0 for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) that presented a vision and described the associated operational and technical requirements for developing a supporting architecture and operating within a UTM ecosystem. UTM is defined as the way [regulatory agencies] will support operations for uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) operating in low altitude airspace. UTM utilizes industry’s ability to supply services under the FAA’s regulatory authority where these services do not currently exist. It is a community-based traffic management system, where the operators and entities providing operation support services are responsible for the coordination, execution, and management of operations, with rules of the road established by the FAA.
In 2022, the FAA released version 2.0 of this ConOps, which continues to focus on UTM operations below 400 feet above ground level (AGL). It addresses increasingly more complex operations within and across both uncontrolled (Class G) and controlled (Classes B, C, D, E) airspace environments. This ConOps 2.0 updates and expands the set of operational scenarios, describing more complex operations in denser airspace, including beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations in controlled airspace. It includes updated descriptions of, and approaches to, several UTM components, including UAS Volume Reservations (which the FAA previously referred to as Dynamic Restrictions), Performance Authorizations, data archiving and access, UAS Service Suppliers (USS) service categories, UTM/ATM contingency notification, and security aspects associated with UTM operations. Some new topics are introduced in this version: Airspace Authorization for BVLOS flight within controlled airspace; UTM architecture support to remote identification of UAS Operators; and standards development efforts with industry as an integral part of enabling UTM operations.
NASA is currently leading the nation to open the skies to advanced air mobility (AAM), a safe and efficient air transportation system where everything from small package delivery UAS to passenger-carrying air taxis operate above populated areas. Urban air mobility (UAM) is a subset of the more inclusive AAM, but you will often hear the terms used interchangeably. Industry partners are working feverishly designing, building, and testing new aircraft for these missions. Other industry partners are working on the infrastructure to support these new aircraft, from vertiports to electric charging stations and more. According to the FAA, AAM is an umbrella term for aircraft that are likely highly automated and electric. They may also be called air taxis or electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. AAM aircraft will be used to transport cargo and passengers, help with firefighting, provide search and rescue operations, and connect underserved and rural communities.
This discussion only scratches the surface of how the United States has been approaching these problems as, according to Nilsson, “Other nations have also been busy legislating in the field.” If this has you interested in how this might go or how you can be a part of it, she has published an eBook devoted entirely to UAS and AAM law. Available for free online, Drones Across the World covers the entire world’s UAS and AAM laws. You should visit frequently, as some small modification or addition to the text is made every week, if not every day, because the AAM arena changes around the world on a very frequent basis.
* While air taxis are still a little ways off and flying cars are just starting to get off the ground, if you happen to be in College Station, Texas, or the West Valley of Phoenix, Arizona, you may already have drone delivery service available from Amazon or Walmart—at least during daylight hours.
Featured image by Vectorportal.com, CC BY.
