Dawn of a New Era: UTM and the NAS
August 1, 2023 | AUVSI Advocacy
The afternoon plenary of the FAA Drone Symposium focused on how air traffic management systems and technologies need to adapt to accommodate new operations.
The session featured Steve Bradford, Chief Scientific & Technical Advisor from FAA’s Office of NextGen; Katrina Hall, Deputy COO for NAS Programs and Support, FAA; Parimal Kopardekar, Director, NASA Aeronautics Research Institute, NASA; and Jeffrey Vincent, Executive Director, UAS Integration Office, FAA.
Panelists began by discussing the future of UAS Traffic Management (UTM) and what is needed for a functional system, agreeing that the future of UTM lies in an integrated airspace, but that the operational difficulties lie in achieving that integration.
Bradford highlighted that there is already some blending in operations between crewed and uncrewed aircraft in Class B and Class C airspace where drones operate under a certain altitude, but that the future lies in Beyond Visual Line-Of-Sight (BVLOS) operations.
The conversation continued to discuss needs that will arise for UTM as BVLOS operations expand. This includes a network for operators to exchange strategic intent with each other for safe and seamless operations.
Vincent highlighted that the real key for BVLOS is having a robust UTM system – and that steps for achievement are strategic deconfliction and detect and avoid (DAA). He continued that the true biggest challenge to creating a UTM system thus far has been just actually doing it.
During the Q&A segment, the audience inquired about common standards for UTM, the future of UTM, and the role of industry. Bradford discussed how his office is working with industry members participating in field trials to help validate their standards and show compliance so that they could be adopted by FAA.
Panelists agreed that they will see UTM as a success when there are multiple advanced and uncrewed operations in the same place, at the same time, and when it becomes such an ingrained part of the ecosystem that it is not even discussed anymore. The session finished with the panelists espousing the need for industry to work together for the success of UTM and the integration of drones into the NAS.
