05 February 2020, Hamburg: A drone from the manufacturer Globe UAV flies over the grounds of the ... [+]
In 2013, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted drones would be distributing packages within five years. Well, it’s 2020 and if we ever needed a flying delivery service it is now. Amazon recently announced they would be temporarily refusing to dispatch non-essential items from its warehouses to cope with overwhelming demand for household essentials, including medical supplies, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
But it is the supply and delivery of medicines and medical samples which could most benefit from a drone delivery service Amazon, alongside many others, having been trying to get off the ground since before 2013.
If there is one thing the coronavirus has highlighted, it is our ability to transport and dispense goods, irrespective of size and importance is currently wholly dependent on ground based, man-in-a-van deliveries. That is not without bottlenecks and risks. It is also very labor intensive, which, when your country is locked down, and your staff in quarantine, can really make life difficult.
So, what is stopping drugs, essential medicines and test samples being distributed to labs, hospitals and our own back yard by fleets of autonomous drones? We have the hardware. There is no question that Amazon, DJI, Parrot and Animal Dynamics, to name but a few, have drones now which could land on the roof of a hospital or in your back garden, drop a payload, before returning to a designated base.
It is not about the hardware. It is about the airspace. That bit of the sky immediately above you. Big commercial aeroplanes fly in controlled airspace well above your head, except when very near to airports, but between that controlled airspace and the grass is a section of the airspace that is not controlled, but used by general aviation, private flyers, helicopters and others (usually lumped together and called general aviation, or GA), using visual flight rules. Drone operators want to share that bit of the airspace with manned aircraft. Herein lies the problem. Or perhaps, heretofore lay the problem. Up until six weeks ago, GA didn’t want to share, but recent events have shown us they are going to have to share.
The use of commercial drones for these tasks, where humans can be safely taken out of the loop, has to be the way forward. So, to open up our skies to the drone economy whilst keeping it safe for manned and unmanned aircraft alike, two things need to happen: First, aviators and drone users need to understand if they are to have a harmonious relationship then they need electronic conspicuity. Despite the prevalence of transponder technology, from iPhone apps to satellite-based ADS-B, today many piloted GA aircraft cannot be seen, or tracked, by air traffic controllers or other interested parties.
Likewise, commercial and recreational drone pilots, although they have been flying for only a relative short period of time, are already increasingly reluctant to either install remote ID devices to their drones or incorporate SIM card technologies to make others aware of their location. It is as if they want to be GA pilots in their next life.
Regulators need to get their acts together. Some readers may remember I wrote last year about how the FAA and EASA could not agree on either remote ID or UTM standards. There is no time for that sort of grandstanding now. If we are to democratize the skies, give everyone equal and, most importantly, safe access to airspace, then we need to know where they are at all times – not so we can see where they are flying, or who is on-board, but so we can stop them colliding.
Which leads me nicely on to the second point. We need a single point of truth – a way of having access to a single source of current location of all airborne craft, from the largest commercial airliner to the smallest drone, on one, open to all, platform. In the U.K., Altitude Angel, in conjunction with the air navigation service provider, NATS UK, has developed a scalable, automated single platform of air traffic control combining drone flight plans with GA craft. In France, working with the French air navigation services provider, DSNA, Hologuide and Clearance are looking at something similar.
This is a great start. Combined with the technology which prevents both drones colliding with other drones, or with manned aircraft, and preventing drones from entering restricted airspace (which already exists) and we are on the way to handling what experts predict will be billions of drone flights a year. (In the interests of full disclosure, please note that my company does work for Altitude Angel.)
If all countries were to adopt these or similar nationally-operated, centralised platforms which blend drone positions with manned aircraft positions, we would have the single- point-of-truth we need to manage and operate the skies safely. So, Jeff, if you want to help the world in delivering life-saving drugs, protective equipment and tests you, and all of us, need to put more thought in to managing the sky, not just the drone.
