Airbus’ unmanned traffic management (UTM) project, Altiscope, has released a new whitepaper which it calls a blueprint for a “new age of flight”.

Blueprint for the Sky: The Roadmap for the Safe Integration of Autonomous Aircraft looks ahead to autonomous flight and urban air mobility, and attempts to outline the information, rules and procedures needed to enable them to operate safely and efficiently.

The whitepaper looks at issues including stakeholders’ roles, air traffic configuration and system architecture.

The Blueprint was reviewed by a number of independent parties, including representatives from IATA, NATCA, GUTMA, the World Economic Forum and the New Zealand Ministry of Transport.

Collaboration

Above all, the paper emphasises a need for all parties to work together. It acknowledges that governments and industry professionals around the world have already initiated efforts to address the challenges.

However, the paper notes: “While these efforts are highly individualised, with each region using different terminology and structure, their architectures, underlying principles to UTM and overall approaches are actually very similar. Each one consists of systems run by regulatory authorities, independent service providers, data providers, operators and aircraft.

“This step is positive, but it is necessary to unify and harmonise these systems to ensure all vehicles and technology built for one region will be interoperable across regions.”

Watch our recent FINN Sessions panel on urban air mobility:

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter