News

Source: pixabay/levhenii_Putiata

Hamburg U-Space real laboratory becomes blueprint for drone traffic

In the future, drones will be safely integrated into the airspace with so-called U-Space areas - also in interaction with manned aviation. At the end of 2021, such a drone airspace was tested for the first time in Germany under real conditions above the Port of Hamburg as part of the U-Space real laboratory. Hamburg has been an official EU model region for the development of civilian uses of drone and other urban aviation technologies since 2018.

"The findings from the real laboratory show that the implementation of the U-Space concept in Germany works," said Angela Kies, Head of Unmanned Aerial Systems at DFS, during the project presentation. Now the implementation of U-Spaces must be consistently pursued in order to be able to use drones even more frequently in the future in logistics, agriculture, for supplying hard-to-reach areas or for transporting essential medical equipment. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing emphasized that he wants to establish the first U-Space areas in Germany as early as 2023. "The U-Space real laboratory has answered many important questions for the establishment of U-Space areas," Wissing said.

Initially, it would make sense to establish additional U-Space areas in model regions with “complex airspaces” throughout Germany. For example, in major cities with airport connections. With more experience the expansion, linkage and introduction of additional U-Spaces can be addressed. One recommendation for action by Droniq and the DFS that emerged from the Hamburg real laboratory was to use a single common information service provider and several coordinators – so called U-Space service providers – with different services and prices for each U-Space area.