“La futura integrazione degli Unmanned Aircraft System nello spazio aereo non segregato”

Inglese

Drones are ushering in a new age of aviation. Their advent has been revolutionizing the aviation system, both civil and military. Unmanned Aircraft System have thrown up regulatory and technological challenges for the aviation system: firstly, on the point of view of airworthiness certification; secondly, from the point of view of their navigation and integration in non-segregated airspace shared with manned aviation. The absence of the pilot on board the aircraft has led to a new way of regulating safety and security of air navigation in national and international airspace. It is an established fact that “Unmanned Aircraft Systems” are “aircraft” in the technical and legal sense of the term. The drone operator is liable for everything related to their use. This new emerging legal figure presents considerable similarities and points of contact with the role and functions of the traditional aircraft operator but, at the same time, inevitable breaking points and differences, simply related to the peculiar design, technical and functional characteristics of UAS. The innovative “operation centric, performance and risk based” aeronautical approach characterized every single aspect of drones’ world. Lastly, the effort to draw up new regulations and revise the architecture of the airspace and the rules of the air should be acknowledged. This is how the “U-Space project” is gradually taking shape. U-Space is a set of services preordained to the definition of a highly automated and digitalized unmanned air traffic management and control system, harmonized with the manned one. The practical implementation of U-Space will make it possible to standardize the integration of manned and unmanned aircraft starting from the so-called “very low-level airspace”. In this regard, the European Commission’s executive regulations have already been issued and will be definitively applicable as of 26 January 2023.