ICAO discusses regulatory framework to support UAS activities during Drone Enable/2

September 29, 2018: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) recently convened Drone Enable- its second unmanned aircraft systems industry symposium in Chengdu, China. Themed going from unmanned aircraft system traffic management (UTM) to air traffic management (ATM) – transitioning from segregation to integration, the symposium brought together key aviation stakeholders from the industry, academia, government and international organisations.

The two day event saw exchange of research, best practices, lessons learned and respective challenges. Attention was given to the complex issues presented by UTM which need to be addressed collectively in order to integrate UAS into the global aviation system. It also presented an opportunity for networking, collaboration and coordination between civil aviation authorities, industry and both new and existing stakeholders.

It also provided a unique opportunity to foster the emergence of a comprehensive and harmonised regulatory framework to support UAS activities. An overview of the work undertaken by ICAO RPAS/UAS on the advancement of RPAS regulatory material and the UTM Framework developed from the DRONE ENABLE/1 efforts were discussed during the sessions. Apart from it, other sessions provided an opportunity to explore the roles and functionalities of UTM and ATM from the technological and operational perspectives; the similarities/differences between the technical and operational capabilities provided by ATM today, and the capabilities being developed for the UTM environment; aircraft registry network etc.