Airside operations
This is just one of the myriad ways in which drones are being integrated into airport operations across the world. The Robird was EIA’s first foray into drones, but the airport has since expanded further. From an operations perspective, it uses drones for quantity surveying, using sensors to geomap construction sites. Regarding infrastructure, EIA uses drones to fly over ditches and check for signs of erosion. They’re also used to carry out runway scans to ensure pavement markings are to international standards. EIA’s air fuel team even use drones to look inside their big airfield equipment, such as their runway sweepers or snow clearers. And that’s only a drop in a bucket that can include aircraft and building inspection, counter-drone operations for keeping public drones out of the airspace, cargo delivery and much more. One particular application that is developing considerable attention in the aviation industry is the use of passenger drones, better known as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The first eVTOL test centre in Europe was opened in Paris, France, in November 2021, with the hope of having the technology in place for the 2024 Olympics. While there is still considerable work to go, interest in eVTOLs is strong in the industry, with some estimations believing the market for electric air taxis could be worth $500bn in the US alone.
Build-up confidence However, while EIA has taken strides forward to embrace the technology, many airports are far more hesitant, due in part to its relative nascency – even Edmonton’s relationship with drones only goes back five or six years, after all. The potential that drones present is not debated, but instead, airport operators have been put off by the challenges around getting drones to work safely within their airspaces. “You don’t have to convince them of the value of drones – that’s not the struggle – but it’s being able to make use of it,” explains Paul Diestelkamp, head of business development and solutions at Air Navigation Solutions, which works with airports and other industry stakeholders across the UK to provide air traffic management services and innovation. “What is lacking is a structured, scalable integration of drones in airports – and beyond.” That’s not to say that any wariness that airports might have regarding allowing drones and aircraft to operate alongside each other in the same airspace is misplaced, however. Drones pose an even greater threat to aircraft than birds do. It’s for that reason that the Robird, for example, is controlled by a pilot and an observer on the ground, and both are in contact with air traffic control. The Robird is also programmed to stay within a confined area and to keep away from runways. If it were to malfunction, it would fall straight down, avoiding the drift that could send it into danger. While there have only been a few confirmed cases of a drone colliding with an aircraft mid-air, the threat that
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drones present is a very real one. It was for that reason, on 19 December 2018, that all air traffic was grounded at Gatwick Airport, due to a potential sighting of two drones within its airspace. Diestelkamp is intimately familiar with the incident, having been at Gatwick on the day, serving as the air navigation services provider. After the Gatwick incident, many airport operators began taking a much more negative perspective on drones, fearing the same kind of disruption. “[After Gatwick] I saw a strong shift towards seeing drones as problems and pushing them away,” Diestelkamp says, but notes that attitudes towards the technology have begun to recover. “If you look at the industry now, [airports] are starting to see the potential again.”
Communicate to integrate
The first and greatest challenge for drone integration is being able to safely use drones alongside normal airport operations. “I think a lot of so-called ‘integration’ in airports in the past has been physically flying on an airport – but that’s it,” Diestelkamp says. “And the only way that was achieved is by not using that part [of the airport] for aircraft or even blocking it off.” With that in mind, work needs to be done, then, to drive the assessment, assurance, approval and acceptance aspects of drone integration – testing in rigidly controlled environments away from an active airspace will only go so far. “This isn’t fundamentally solving the problem of integration, which isn’t a technology problem as much as it is a communication problem,” says Diestelkamp. “The key is the translation between the different stakeholders.” He sees true drone integration in airports as consisting of three separate layers. The first covers implementing data and sensors on-site to collect information. The second layer involves information processing and display – such as how air traffic controllers are able to track drones within an airspace. Diestelkamp and his team see particular importance that, for this layer, such information is displayed on the same tools controllers are currently using. Proper drone integration shouldn’t involve the addition of a new screen for the controller to keep track of, but should instead be visible and trackable in an integrated manner, ideally on the tools they already have at hand. The final, and most important, layer, however, is the procedural one. “Ultimately, the drone is yet another aircraft, and yet another airspace and airport user,” Diestelkamp says. “No different than any other aircraft, really, in terms of how its managed and how you approach [and] approve it.” Therefore, measures and procedures need to be put in place to enable ATM officials and airspace users to know how to monitor and respond to drones, just as they do for other aircraft. Part of the issue has been that drones are a relatively new technology – or at least, cheap, easily accessible ones are – and the regulations and legislation around them has lagged behind.
19 142k FAA
Bird strikes on US civil aircraft between 1990 and 2013.
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