Month: June 2022

SAM IS ....
UK determines certification standards for new electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has today confirmed it will put in place the certification standards also used by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), known as Special Conditions (SC)-VTOL, as the basis for UK certification for new electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Special Conditions allow manufactures and the CAA to develop safety requirements as these new technologies come to market and provide the basis for approval.

The safety levels established under SC.VTOL provide stringent levels of protection for the UK consumer, both in the air and on the ground.  

In implementing these new standards, the CAA will continue to proactively engage and collaborate with other global national aviation authorities, such as the US Federal Aviation Administration, to share approaches, lessons learned and safety insights.

Harmonising safety standards across nations and continents helps to maintain high levels of safety, as well as reducing industry costs and avoiding duplication of effort. By working together the UK industry has easier access to the wider global market.

Rob Bishton, CAAs Group Director for safety and airspace regulation, said: 

“The decision to adopt SC-VTOL as our certification basis will support UK manufacturers and enable them to easily access the global market for eVTOL aircraft. 

“We will continue to work with the industry to help promote and facilitate innovation throughout aviation.”

16 June 2022

Update

EASA publishes world’s first rules for operation of air taxis in cities – 30 June 2022

 The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) published rules for the operation of air taxis in cities, the first comprehensive proposal for such regulations to be issued world-wide. 

Read more

SAM IS ....
CAA: Non-Executive Director Needed

The UK Civil Aviation Authority are recruiting for a Non-Executive Director with General Aviation Expertise. Your role will be to provide independent and constructive challenge to the CAA’s executive team to help ensure the CAA delivers its strategic objectives.

Your experience in aviation (and other sectors) will ideally have given you an ability to appreciate and understand:

  • The strategic issues facing General and Business Aviation (essential);
  • A broad range of General Aviation activities (e.g. private, display, heritage, recreational, Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems, and business other than passenger carriage) (essential);
  • The ability to provide strategic challenge, whilst building consensus with a range of stakeholders (essential);
  • Political awareness and the ability to navigate the political landscape (essential);
  • The role of General Aviation in the development and adoption of innovative technologies such as fuels, remotely piloted air systems, and machine learning (desirable); and
  • Design, manufacture, operational and consumer perspectives of General and Business Aviation (desirable).

For further details:

Closing Date: 11.59pm on 24 July 2022

SAM IS ....
CAP2367: Consultation Response: Extending the provisions for Legacy and Transitional Category UAS
SAM IS ....
Commaris™ SEEKER™: Terrafugia Launches New Brand, New Drone

Flying car company Terrafugia launched a new brand and a new drone at Commercial UAV in Las Vegas: the Commaris SEEKER.

The CommarisTM SEEKERTM  is an electric, fixed-wing/VTOL hybrid aircraft designed for autonomous commercial aerial applications.

“This UAV is designed to perform a wide variety of commercial inspection operations in applications such as power, gas, oil, mapping, agriculture, and security,” said Kevin Colburn, President of Terrafugia and Commaris. “Our team of experienced aviation professionals has created an extremely capable, commercial-grade UAV that, in many situations, will deliver results that typical rotary-wing UAVs or helicopters cannot come close to providing.”

The Commaris SEEKER offers more than three hours of flight time without a battery change, supports multiple payload configurations, and travels at a top speed of over 60 mph. It can carry a payload of up to 10 pounds; and its modular design can be assembled or disassembled in the field in under three minutes.

And, with all electric motors with a noise signature of only 40 decibels on the ground and near-silence at 500 feet AGL, the Commaris SEEKER is very, very quiet.

DRONELIFE spoke with Commaris Manager of Business Development Fred Bedard on the floor of Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas this week, where the SEEKER was on display.

“This is a long haul vehicle,” Bedard said. “This can stay aloft for more than 3 hours, which makes it perfect for power line inspection, pipeline inspection, agriculture – anything that requires that you fly in one direction for a long distance.   You can cover about 170 miles in that timeframe.”

“Rotor wings are great at hovering, great at inspection up close – but their downfall is that 45 minute flight time,” Bedard points out.  “Your personnel involvement is costly.”

A better comparison might be to a helicopter, which could cover a comparable distance.  Bedard says that the Commaris SEEKER offers major advantages over helicopter operations, especially in an urban setting – or for an application like security that requires silence.

“When you have utilities that need to be monitored in an urban setting, helicopters do the job,” Bedard said. “But they’re loud: and they can’t get very close because of safety.”

“This will do everything a helicopter will do in an inspection mode – we carry the same sensors, we can fly just as long.  But we’re much less expensive, we’re much less noisy, and our carbon footprint is very very low. ”

From the Commaris press release:

The SEEKER’s large payload-carrying capability will be customizable with a variety of modular options, such as a 30x optical zoom EO/IR camera for inspection, a 120-megapixel high-resolution camera for terrain mapping and 3D modeling, a six-band multispectral camera designed for precision agriculture analysis, a LiDAR system, a laser methane sensor, or a corona discharge sensor, most of which will feature the ability to stream data to the operator in near-real time.

May 2022

SAM IS ....
MOD seeks UAS innovation ideas to support Ukraine

“Since Russia’s brutal invasion UK defence suppliers with active support from MOD and DE&S have taken equipment from desktop ideas to deployment. This £25m plus fund is designed to capture ongoing work and support innovative ideas to meet defence requirements.

“Recent months have shown the ingenuity and innovation of the UK defence sector, coming up with new approaches and, with support, taking them from desktop to the front line. We want to ensure ongoing creativity is harnessed and directed at key requirements and all companies with a capability that can help are aware of the challenge. “

Jeremy Quin MP, Minister for Defence Procurement

What is it?
The UK Ministry of Defence is launching a fund worth at least £25M for the procurement of innovative solutions designed to support the defence of Ukraine. Our priority is for proposals that can be delivered within the next 4 months. We particularly welcome ideas with fast initial delivery alongside longer term capability development, where appropriate.

What is the timeframe?
The Ukrainian requirement is urgent and every day counts. We are therefore asking for proposals from industry with a deadline of 10th June 2022.

What do we need from you?
We do not need a full, complete business proposal as you might provide for a commercial tender, but the following would help us assess individual opportunities:
• Product description/potential use case(s)
• Technology Readiness Level
• Training requirements
• Spares/supportability requirements
• Details of any extant contracts with DE&S/MOD (including contract reference and Delivery Team)

How will your proposals be used?
All proposals will be triaged by UK MOD to assess feasibility to be taken forward. The appropriate procurement strategy and route to market will be developed for all selected proposals. This may be single source with the proposing vendor or if a competitive market exists, a wider competitive exercise. Suppliers submitting proposals deemed suitable for competing in the open market will, subject to
pre-qualification, be invited to bid in any competition and any pre-existing intellectual property will be respected. Regrettably, due to resource constraints and the necessity to work at pace it won’t be possible to provide feedback to those whose ideas are not taken forward.

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)

UAS are being employed at unprecedented scale for a huge breadth of effects in Ukraine. In particular the innovation fund campaign is seeking novel and innovative proposals in the following areas:

• Lethal Effects – UAS capable of delivering or supporting the delivery of long-range (50km +) targeted strike.

• Heavy Lift – drones capable of performing a variety of heavy lift tasks with a minimum performance of at least 150kg at a range of over 400km. Possible applications include logistics resupply and casualty evacuation.

• ISR and long range sensors – novel applications of UAS to support longer range and more precise targeting of artillery. Including in combination with Soviet-era systems.

• Deception – UAS which can support deception operations – including imitating the signatures of more advanced capabilities and formations.

• Electronic Warfare – UAS with a range of EW capabilities.

Please direct all proposals and enquiries to: dcmc-ukraineinnovationproposals@mod.gov.uk

SAM IS ....
Aviation Minister launches Flightpath to the Future

Robert Courts, the Aviation Minister, has just launched Flightpath to the Future, a 10-point strategy to rebuild consumer confidence, build back sustainably from the pandemic, support jobs across the country and build a skilled and diverse workforce that’s fit for the future. The strategy includes drones in the ‘Embracing Innovation for a Sustainable Future’ section. 

The delivery of the new 10-point plan will be supported by an all-new Aviation Council made up of airlines, airports and wider representatives from the aviation sector, as well as ministers and officials from both the UK government and devolved administrations. The council will work to use the lessons learned from the pandemic to support recovery and make air travel better for passengers and better for the planet.

Point 5 from Flightpath to the Future: 
“Capture the potential of new technology and its uses – benefitting from new regulatory freedoms outside the EU, we will be one of the first countries in the world to routinely use new aircraft to provide new and improved low carbon services, and local and regional air mobility for goods and people. This will include aircraft such as drones and electrical vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

“This will be achieved through providing additional funding to CAA to scale up support to innovators and setting up a Future of Flight Industry Group to work with industry and the CAA to develop, publish and implement a plan for Future of Flight. The plan will include delivery of the necessary regulatory framework for aviation innovation to thrive. We will also support the sector in delivering the Airspace Modernisation Strategy to achieve quicker, quieter, and cleaner flights. The strategy will also ensure that all new and current airspace users can operate and coexist safely in UK airspace.” 

Richard Moriarty, Chief Executive of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:

As aviation recovers, we share government’s ambitions for the sector to build back to become cleaner, greener, more innovative and to continue prioritising safety and delivering for its consumers.

The established and emerging aviation and aerospace sectors and their stakeholders will need to work together to deliver this and I’m looking forward to the Civil Aviation Authority being part of that collective effort.

Flightpath to the Future

26 May 2022

SAM IS ....
Joby Receives Part 135 Certificate From the FAA

Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate received ahead of schedule, initially targeted for second half of 2022; Certification allows Joby to operate aircraft commercially; Joby will use conventional aircraft to refine systems and procedures in advance of launching eVTOL service targeted for 2024

Joby Aviation, Inc. (NYSE:JOBY), a California-based company developing all-electric aircraft for commercial passenger service, today announced the Company has received a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration, allowing Joby to begin on-demand commercial air taxi operations.

Joby received the certification ahead of schedule, with completion of the process originally expected in the second half of 2022. The five-stage process included the submission of more than 850 pages of manuals for approval and required Joby’s initial cadre of pilots to demonstrate mastery of the Company’s procedures and training under FAA observation.

The Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate is one of three FAA approvals required for Joby to operate its revolutionary electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft as an air taxi service in cities and communities across the United States, alongside a Type Certificate and a Production Certificate.

Bonny Simi, Head of Air Operations and People at Joby, and one of the Company’s FAA-approved pilots, stated: “The procedures we’ve prepared lay a foundation for our future eVTOL operations. Over the coming months, we will use our Part 135 certificate to exercise the operations and customer technology platforms that will underpin our multi-modal ridesharing service, while also refining our procedures to ensure seamless journeys for our customers.”

“Receiving this certificate ahead of schedule is a testament to the incredible dedication and hard work of our team,” added Simi.

Once Joby receives a type certificate for its eVTOL aircraft, the Company will complete the FAA review process to add the new aircraft type to its existing air carrier certificate. Pilots for the Company’s future aerial ridesharing service, expected to launch in 2024, will have the benefit of flying an environmentally-friendly aircraft on a reliable work schedule, ending each shift in their home city. 

Joby previously announced a partnership with CAE, a global leader in aviation training, to develop and qualify flight simulation training devices that Joby will use to train commercially-rated pilots to fly its eVTOL aircraft.

Joby’s all-electric aircraft is designed to transport a pilot and four passengers up to 150 miles on a single charge at speeds of up to 200 mph. Joby recently announced the results of acoustic testing with NASA, which confirmed the aircraft hit the Company’s target for low noise emissions during take-off and landing as well as overhead flight. 

For more information

26 May 2022

SAM IS ....
What does a Successful Drone Programme look like? Webinar Watch Again

How do you fly an effective drone mission to capture high quality data, which can then be processed and delivered quickly to your customers.

Whether you’re an AEC, Public Safety, Commercial or Not for Profit organisation, are you facing management and collaboration issues across multiple drone solutions?

Esri UK will provide an overview of an end-to-end cloud-based drone programme designed to revolutionize your data and site management. Owen and Mark will also discuss how to maintain a complete picture of your drone inventory and flight history with automatic fleet management; Staying up to date with accurate imagery when needed with repeatable flight plans that ensure high quality data capture when flying your drones.

Lastly, Owen and Mark will outline how to securely process imagery in a scalable cloud environment to create high-quality 2D and 3D imagery products that can be quickly shared throughout your organization on any device.

Key Learnings:

• Autonomous flight paths

• Process in the cloud

• Plan and capture

• Quickly share and disseminate

• Fleet Management

Speakers:

Owen Lauder, ArcGIS Advisor & Mark Clews, Technical Drone Lead.

Owen – Sales Manager at Esri UK. Specifically working closely with drone organisations to gain exceptional value from their drone imagery. I have worked with organisations across the Defence/Public Safety; AEC and Transport sector developing the use of photogrammetry. These use cases range from vegetation management, Site inspections to Road accident collisions.

Mark – Mark is ex forces and is a qualified drone operator. He now works in technical enablement and is the technical lead for drone products at Esri UK.

SAM IS ....
Protected: ARPAS-UK June 2022 Newsletter

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

SAM IS ....
First Flights of Dragon Drone at Snowdonia Aerospace Centre

Snowdonia Aerospace is pleased to announce the successful first flights of their new Dragon drone at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre, Llanbedr, last week.

Working in partnership with SwiftFlight Avionics and supported by Innovate UK Future Flight Challenge grant funding, the Dragon drone will be a major research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) platform for demonstrating the safe integration of drones into UK airspace for regular and routine beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations. Further flight envelope expansion and capability development activities will continue over the summer at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre (SAC), which offers the only dedicated commercially-run, permanent Danger Area for drone testing in the UK. 

The Dragon drone is equipped with an Echodyne airborne detect-and-avoid radar and Uavionix electronic conspicuity devices and will use the unique test environment at SAC to demonstrate integration with the ground-based Altitude Angel Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system and the potential for further integration with the UK 5G network in partnership with Virgin Media O2.

The Dragon also has the capacity to accommodate a further 5kg mass / 10 litres volume of third party payloads either in the nose or in a ventral pod for experimental test purposes. The maximum take-off weight is 55kg and endurance for RDT&E activities will be 2 to 4 hours depending on payload. 

As well as the necessary technical developments to ensure safe BVLOS operation, Snowdonia Aerospace is also working with NHS Wales and a number of blue light and emergency services (including mountain rescue) to establish how drones can effectively contribute to supporting / working in parallel with these services whilst also delivering economic and societal benefit across Wales and beyond. 

Lee Paul, Chief Executive Officer of Snowdonia Aerospace, said: 

This is a great milestone passed and we look forward to regular BVLOS flights from later this month and engaging with others companies / operators who may wish to test their equipment /payloads along with taking advantage of our unique new Danger Area at the Snowdonia Aerospace Centre.

Snowdonia Aerospace is an ARPAS-UK Member.