Sign in / up

back to article US startup wheels out EU-compliant drone traffic management app

An American upstart says it is the first company to implement the EU's vision of drone air traffic management – over the skies of Switzerland. Airmap, one of many small companies around the world hoping to make a breakthrough in the elusive field of unmanned traffic management (UTM), has joined forces with Swiss air traffic …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *
  1. tiggity Silver badge

    Never mind integrating drones with air traffic control

    I'm still waiting for safe, cheap, decent range, affordable personal jet packs

    ... and their integration with air traffic systems

    2 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Trollface

      Re: Never mind integrating drones with air traffic control

      Why ? Are flying cars not good enough ?

      2 0 Reply
  2. Alister

    Nice screenshot, I'm guessing the pretty red bit is over the runway, and the pretty amber bit is over the whole airfield perimeter.

    But why doesn't the red and amber bit extend beyond the physical confines of the runway so that approach and departure are protected?

    1 0 Reply
    1. Joe Werner Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Yes, you are guessing ;)... but I looked at a map, and "red" is quite a bit longer (and wider) than the actual runway - judging from the shape of the border to France. So it does indeed cover the final approach and the departure and the whole airport as well.

      Without information what altitude AGL amber would correspond to I can only guess that this covers the usual routes into and out of the control zone (class D), and maybe some of the lower level class C that surrounds a control zone usually (from the scale I would say that's roughly where class C is around 1000ft AGL, but that is just a very rough guess).

      1 0 Reply
  3. TrumpSlurp the Troll
    Trollface

    All you have to do now

    Is make all the drones use the software and reliably disable all the ones that don't.

    Simples!

    1 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: All you have to do now

      And make the software reliable!

      It seems that it would have to be safety critical reliable. I suspect that a lot of outfits messing around with drones and drone software are cheerfully ignoring that aspect, and they will get stung in the arse when it comes to using it for real.

      So the EASA's apparently permissive rules are probably no easier to live with than the FAA's. I suspect that the FAA is simply laying down rules that reflect the near certainty that the hipster-ladden drone software community won't be able to produce software or communications to the required safety standards.

      0 0 Reply
  4. Dodgy Geezer Silver badge

    I wonder...

    ...how they handle model aircraft - particularly model thermal gliders, which regularly exceed 400ft...

    0 0 Reply

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like