Europe’s SESAR Joint Undertaking has presented the fifth edition of its U-space Concept of Operations, the reference document that describes how drones and other new airspace users should be managed in European skies. The update, produced by the SESAR-funded CORUS FIVE project, was unveiled at the EU Drone Summit, held November 9–10 at the Egmont Palace in Brussels.
According to SESAR, the new edition builds on earlier CORUS work and tackles more complex settings, including controlled airspace and the areas around airports. An extended executive summary was released at the summit, and SESAR says the full document will follow.
Room for eVTOLs
Urban Air Mobility News, which reviewed the concept, reports that it includes provisions for bringing vertically capable aircraft (VCA), the European term covering eVTOLs, into the wider air traffic management network. Per that report, the document expects VCA flights to be planned so that landing is arranged before takeoff, keeping hovering and holding to a minimum, with diversion options planned continuously during flight.
To support that, the concept describes a Vertiport Information Service through which vertiports would continuously share whether they can accept a landing. It also outlines a Vertiport Manager role controlling access to a vertiport’s final approach and takeoff area (FATO), and suggests human oversight is likely for passenger operations in the medium term. Urban Air Mobility News adds that the document flags capacity bottlenecks and the cost of traffic management services as areas still needing work, noting that public funding may be needed early on.
More research on the way
SESAR also used the summit to showcase its newer research portfolio. Industrial research projects VERTI-GO, GOF3, RAXUS, DAEDALUS and UP-EXPAND, along with exploratory projects HIVE, TUNED, SMART and DiFerRent CORUS, presented work on dynamic airspace management, digital flight authorisations, automation and integrating new airspace users. Separately, the U-ELCOME Digital Sky Demonstrator presented a U-space Implementation Handbook drawing on deployment experience across Europe.
SESAR said the summit came as the European Commission reviews progress under its Drone Strategy 2.0 and prepares a new Aviation and Aeronautics Strategy.
Sources: SESAR Joint Undertaking; U-space ConOps Edition 5; Urban Air Mobility News.