Solving jigsaw puzzles is possible even with the pieces up-side-down
Flying cars - hard problems and regulation
Thanks for reading and contributing. The newsletter got some interest from alts.co and they have written a great article on air rights linked at the bottom of the page. Thanks Stefan.
I hope you enjoy this weeks newsletter, all feedback is welcome so please feel free to get in touch jonathan@skytrades.io
In the US the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for safety.
5.3 million square miles of U.S. airspace over land.
24 million square miles of U.S. airspace over the oceans.
43,290 average daily (non drone) flights in and out of the U.S.
14,000 air traffic controllers.
700 air traffic facilities.
(lexica)
Aviation contributes $1.6 trillion annually to the U.S. economy and constitutes 5.1% of GDP. It generates 10 million jobs in the U.S. annually in its current format. This is before drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are integrated. The growth of drones and UAVs is projected to reach $1 trillion by 2040.
(NASA)
Asking the good people in the FAA to deal with this growth and for their budget to fund it becomes a mountain too high to climb. The FAA has no desire to add to its already high workload and manage (beyond safety) the below commercial aircraft air space. The fact they don’t own the air space means they don’t need to either. In fact in 2017, the FAA launched a prototype version of the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC).
LAANC is a partnership in which the FAA supplies the source data and technical requirements, and industry builds applications for commercial drone operators to plan their flights and access ‘controlled’ airspace. This is the below commercial air space version of air traffic control where much of the new UAV traffic will need to transit through. The FAA has expressed its desire to have a reasonable regulatory approach to beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) that ensures an “acceptable level of safety without imposing an undue burden on market participants.”
There is a lot within the 381 page report from ‘The Aviation Rule Making Committee’, linked at the bottom of the page. Normally the fastest way to slow down innovation is to send it to a committee and pack it full of people to advance their own agendas. However this is worth reading and a considered report. Safety is rightly their paramount objective.
However, we have to remember that falling parts from commercial aircraft kill more people than sharks in the US each year and we accept this level of risk for the greater good. We are not shutting down the aviation industry and beatifying sharks. This is important, as risk is to be managed, we must approach UAVs in a similar reasonable way. The biggest danger is trying to protect us all to such an extent that we strangle innovation that has the prospect for unlimited upside. This tension is not new but needs to be acknowledged and dealt with so we can push ourselves forward.
(freepik)
European Drone Regulations
The European Union (EU) regulation divides drone operations into three main categories:
The Open Category is for low risk operations.
The Specific Category is for medium to high risk operations.
The Certified Category is for the highest risk operations.
Under the EU's regulatory framework, drones have flown safely for hundreds of thousands of hours in Europe's skies. They have been surveying infrastructure, monitoring oil spills, sampling soil, doing medical air deliveries and transporting medical samples. The implementation of the ‘U-Space', from January 2023, that misses the landowners air rights as it is not within their remit, is a European system created to manage drone traffic safely. It is hoped it will be part of the ingredients required for increased UAV operations. Before pushing ahead the Commission wants to ensure that society supports drones.
The Strategy calls for national, regional and local municipalities to ensure that drone services are aligned with citizens' needs.
The Strategy envisions the following drone services becoming part of life by 2030:
Innovative Air Mobility services, such as air taxis, providing regular transport services for passengers……, with the ultimate aim of fully automating operations.
Emergency services mapping, imaging, inspection and surveillance within the applicable legal frameworks by civil drones, as well as the urgent delivery of small consignments, such as biological samples or medicines.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) design verification requirements and regime for getting an aircraft approved are tough. There is a political eagerness in Europe to lead from the front in all use cases for drones. Can they out run the US? Based on historical advances in technology you would be forgiven for betting on the US, but who takes the lead will depend on who brings the air rights owners into their system quicker and ultimately sharing the technology will benefit all of us.
The EASA is implementing stringent requirements for drone approval. The LUC certificate, or Light Unmanned Aircraft System, is a highly sought-after authorization that provides operational autonomy to its holder. But the recipient of the LUC must abide by the same standards of governance and discipline as airlines and aircraft manufacturers. This is a high bar. Is it unnecessarily too high? It feels like it lacks imagination and someone somewhere said ‘we have been doing it this way forever with flying objects so we will keep doing it this way?’.
This certification requirement may also prove challenging for smaller businesses. This means slowing innovation and helping larger deeper pocketed encumbents. The LUC is a valuable asset for any organization. In aviation, safety always comes first. Achieving this level of safety and security requires strong governance structure, strict discipline, and expert engineering. The challenge of obtaining the LUC may be substantial, but the potential rewards could make it a worthwhile pursuit. The best way forward would be to reassess this burden so we don’t have to pretend small payload UAVs are virtually the same risk as jumbo jets.
(quadricottero)
UAV Companies Are Worth Billions - But They Need Tangible Air Space To Support Their Valuations
Drone operators in the US can get waivers from the FAA that allow them to bypass visual line of sight rules. They need to prove they can do it safely and this friction is slowing down adoption and leading to a piecemeal process.
An FAA committee report recommended changes to visual line of sight and related regulations. The committee recommended that the agency standardize “an acceptable level of risk” for all uncrewed aircraft systems. This includes changes to the right-of-way rules, adopting new pilot training requirements, creating new regulations for which UAVs can operate beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).
In its absence of the air rights owners, it recommends establishing a non-mandatory framework that allows third-party services to support beyond visual line of sight operations. The FAA neither can nor want to annex air rights, but others might.
Amazon, Walmart and Wing (Alphabet) and other retailers have already started drone deliveries, a Walmart spokesperson said it’s “very exciting” that the U.S. is developing a coordinated national framework to ease drone operations.
Drone company CEOs and industry leaders are saying the FAA should require all crewed and un-crewed aircraft to transmit information about their GPS location, altitude, ground speed and other data to ground stations and other aircraft under a system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast. It is already in place that they need to emit a signal which identifies and connects ownership details. These updated requirement are in train and will ensure air safety as more and more drones operate in the U.S. This will all help track the flights and who owns the air space they are transiting through.
MightyFly Longer Range eVTOL Freighter Aircraft
The FAA has issued a special airworthiness certificate and a certificate of authorization for MightFly's eVTOL prototype. This allows the San Francisco-based start-up to expand the scale of flight testing with the autonomous freighter. The company plans to operate the model itself and is banking on significant cost savings for customers. Customers will be manufacturers needing to accelerate supply chains, medical and pharmaceutical groups, and retailers.
An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Future
“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man” - George Bernard Shaw.
I’m convinced that UAVs hold immense potential for changing the way we live and do business. Despite the various challenges that come with the technology, it is imperative that we embrace and invest in its infrastructural development.
One of the significant challenges of UAVs is the need for a regulatory framework that ensures its safety and security, which is currently being scaffolded. Nevertheless, with the rapid advancements in technology and the growing demand for efficient and cost-effective delivery methods, it is a ripe time for significant investments in infrastructure.
Another challenge faced by the industry is the limited range of UAVs, which restricts their ability to carry heavy payloads over extensive distances, see a previous post Can the drone industry show us the way to flying cars. However, with advancements in battery technology and more efficient propulsion systems, this barrier is being gradually overcome.
It’s imperative to invest in infrastructure, not only to tap into the lucrative market but also to speed up the development of this technology and make it more accessible to the general public. The benefits of UAVs, including reduced travel times, increased efficiency and access for those who don’t currently have access to certain products are numerous and well-documented.
Despite these benefits, there is an often ignored aspect of UAVs that is critical to its success: air rights.
Landowners' air rights play a vital role in the entire industry, and their importance cannot be overstated. Unfortunately, these air rights are currently being selectively ignored, like my perfectly hearing uncle who bought a hearing aid to turn off the voices he didn’t like. They need to be addressed for the industry to reach its full potential.
The challenges should not deter us from embracing and investing in this space. With the right investment and regulation we can unlock the full potential and create a better, more efficient world for all. The key to success lies in helping landowners' with their air rights and ensuring that they play an integral role in the UAV industry.
As Marc Andreessen from a16z puts it on The Lunar Society Podcast this week. “We certainly don’t have enough flying car startups.”
There is a system that will solve the air rights problem and get us to flying cars, in this regard I’m being unreasonable and building it.
(Deepai)
Reading
UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS BEYOND VISUAL LINE OF SIGHT AVIATION RULEMAKING COMMITTEE