Currently, the UAS/RPAS/Drone community, as well as regulatory authorities and the press, make suppositions concerning the drone market (the market sectors involved), as well as the flight operations actually taking place in these market sectors.
These suppositions are not based on justifiable numbers. In addition, there are no commonly accepted definitions of the terms to be used to describe the market sectors and flight operations. The consequence is that the messages getting out to potential customers, investors and regulatory authorities, as well as the general public, are not always clear. This survey has as purpose to contribute to correcting this situation.
The objective of this survey is to:
- Identify the market sectors in which drone flight operations are currently taking place;
- Quantify the mission purposes of the flight operations (VLOS & BVLOS)currently taking place in compliance with the applicable national rules or regulations;
- Identify the market sectors in which Very Low Level (VLL) flight operations (below 500 feet AGL & BVLOS) are anticipated to take place in the not too distant future;
- Identify the market sectors where BVLOS flight operations at altitudes above 500 feet AGL are envisaged to take place in the future;
- Quantify the flight mission purposes of the flight operations in both these categories.
This survey is aimed at the UAS/RPAS/Drone operator community in all countries. It has an operation-centric approach and does not make a distinction between UAS/RPAS/Drones according to their mass.
The responses supplied to this survey will not be nominally attributed to the companies/organizations having supplied them. However, a list of all companies/organisations having responded will be part of the final deliverable. The conclusions of this survey will be made publically available on a no-cost basis to all interested parties.
You are invited to contribute to this Survey on UAS/RPAS/Drone Operations.
Completing the survey will take 10 minutes.
The submission deadline is: 15 September 2017
The document “The Global Non-Military RPAS Market (Commercial & Non-Commercial)” supplies additional information & examples that may be useful.
Other relevant reference documents can be found at http://rpas-regulations.com/