The UK Civil Aviation Authority has today published its Future of Flight: BVLOS roadmap setting out operational pathways intended to unlock the full economic and societal potential of uncrewed aerial systems (UAS).
The CAA says the roadmap sets out a “safe, realistic and proportionate roadmap for the near future” and builds on trials already being undertaken by UK companies conducting drone delivery and inspections.
“The flying of drones beyond the visual line of sight of their operator is the biggest challenge facing the industry,” the CAA says. “This involves drones safely sharing the airspace with all other types of aircraft, as well as flying over cities and infrastructure. The new roadmap sets out a straightforward plan for the UK that sees this being fully achieved in the next three years.”
Rather than listing policies and projects the roadmap describes what operations will be routine and when, based on the work within the Future of Flight Portfolio. The CAA has based the roadmap on operational pathways to relate it to real operations and use cases. Each pathway then includes different operational scenarios that will be enabled over time.
The roadmap’s annexes present how the CAA expects each operational pathway to develop over time, linking the enabled operational scenarios to the relevant airspace requirements and policies.
While the roadmap aims to enable routine BVLOS operations by 2027, it also expects to have the regulatory framework and operational systems in place that enable initial commercial passenger AAM flights in the UK by year-end 2028.
Anne-Lise Scaillierez, CEO of UK drone trade body ARPAS UK said the organisation welcomes the updated roadmap. “We value this transparent engagement and the focus on use cases that deliver near-term real value for the sector, supported by clearly articulated and progressive requirements for each scenario in the longer-term. The industry is, of course, ready to move faster, especially in lower air risk operations, and we will continue working collaboratively to help accelerate delivery.”
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