It is well understood that Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) have great potential for civil application, however, in order for Europe to take advantages of these benefits, civil RPAS Research and Development (R&D) activities must be undertaken in full alignment with ongoing ATM R&D activities and meet existing requirements for manned aviation – as described in the Roadmap for the integration of civil RPAS into the European Aviation System– particularly within the context of the European Single European Sky (SES) initiative.
Against this background, the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) has initiated a “Definition Phase” to shape an R&D Programme on civil RPAS integration, for implementation as part of the SESAR 2020 Programme. The RPAS Definition Phase will detail essential R&D activities taking into account the following:
- The EU RPAS Roadmap handed over by RPAS stakeholders to the EC
- Current developments in SESAR Research and Innovation (R&I) Programme
- Experience of the RPAS European industry, research organisations and the relevant actor in the field
- Delivered outlined actions, policy paper and existing results available from EU and other initiatives
- Previous studies and projects on RPAS establishing good and solid R&D baseline
- Input to the next ATM Master Plan update (June 2015)
On 8 September 2014, the SJU kick started preparations for the RPAS Definition Phase with a workshop bringing together key stakeholders whose input will be necessary to make the RPAS R&D activities in SESAR 2020 Programme a reality. Attendees included representatives from the European Commission (both from the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport and Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry) Eurocontrol, and EASA, as well as representatives from industry and various other bodies including the Military (CANSO, ASD, EDA, ULTRA, ESA, JARUS, IFATCA, UVS International) and SJU Associate Partners AT-One and ATM Fusion.
As clarified in the workshop, the Definition Phase will not result in a separate RPAS SESAR programme, rather one which is integrated into the SESAR 2020 Programme. In this respect, it will cover issues specific to unmanned operations, proposing, where appropriate, changes and amendments to ensure that the overall SESAR concept completely addresses both manned and unmanned systems.
The workshop also allowed the SJU to gather key stakeholder comments, proposals and decide on the allocation of work through open discussions. The Agenda and related presentations can be downloaded below:
EC (DG MOVE) Keynote Speech, Koen de Vos, DG MOVE, European Commission
Introduction to the RPAS Definition Phase, Denis Koehl, SESAR JU
EU ATM Master Plan Update, Henk Hof, Eurocontrol
SESAR 2020 Programme, Denis Koehl, SESAR JU
Objectives, Scope and Work Planning for RPAS insertion in SESAR 2020 Programme, Mike Lissone, Eurocontrol
Source: Press Release