NASA has developed an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system for drones, demonstrated through successful tests with the FAA. This system allows multiple drones to safely fly simultaneously in the same airspace, as evidenced by a pilot program in Dallas.
The UTM system necessitates collaboration among drone companies, who share flight data to prevent collisions. Companies like Zipline, Wing, Flytrex, and DroneUp in the Dallas area exemplify this collaboration by disclosing flight plans to ensure airspace safety.
The FAA's upcoming Part 108 rule is expected to further promote UTM adoption by allowing beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone flights if UTM is utilized, reducing the need for waivers. This will require continued collaboration to safely manage increased drone traffic.
Over the past decade, NASA and industry have demonstrated to the FAA through a series of tests that drones can safely maneuver around each other by adhering to UTM. And last summer, the agency gave the go-ahead for multiple drone delivery companies using UTM to begin flying simultaneously in the same airspace above Dallas—a first in US aviation history. Drone operators without in-house UTM capabilities have also begun licensing UTM services from FAA-approved third-party providers.
UTM only works if all participants abide by the same rules and agree to share data, and it’s enabled a level of collaboration unusual for companies competing to gain a foothold in a young, hot field, notes Peter Sachs, head of airspace integration strategy at Zipline, a drone delivery company based in South San Francisco that’s approved to use UTM.Â
“We all agree that we need to collaborate on the practical, behind-the-scenes nuts and bolts to make sure that this preflight deconfliction for drones works really well,” Sachs says. (“Strategic deconfliction” is the technical term for processes that minimize drone-drone collisions.) Zipline and the drone delivery companies Wing, Flytrex, and DroneUp all operate in the Dallas area and are racing to expand to more cities, yet they disclose where they’re flying to one another in the interest of keeping the airspace conflict-free.
Greater adoption of UTM may be on the way. The FAA is expected to soon release a new rule called Part 108 that may allow operators to fly beyond visual line of sight if, among other requirements, they have some UTM capability, eliminating the need for the difficult-Âto-obtain waiver the agency currently requires for these flights. To safely manage this additional drone traffic, drone companies will have to continue working together to keep their aircraft out of each other’s way.Â
Yaakov Zinberg is a writer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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