The integration of unmanned aircraft systems into national airspaces worldwide will have profound implications for air traffic control systems, which need to be modernized even as this new challenge arises.

Several speakers at the Second Global Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Symposium, sponsored by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, addressed these issues on the third and final day of the conference.

Robert Stallard, of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations (IFATCA), said air traffic management systems are still working with technology developed in the 1950s and 1960s.

A digital revolution has occurred in the world, but “we’ve not had our digital revolution yet,” he said. 

Stallard said modernization is underway, and as it happens air traffic controllers need to ensure that remotely piloted systems don’t become second-class citizens in the airspace.

“This is a once-in-a-generation change to our ATM system which we have got to get right,” he said.

Rob Eagles, director of infrastructure at IATA, the International Air Transport Association, said the burgeoning unmanned sector is bringing with it “new thinking, new ways of doing things,” and “the regulatory framework needs to be speeded up to keep up with technology.”

He noted that this system should include vehicle-to-vehicle communication, which would enable aircraft to perform “self-separation” from other aircraft, rather than always having to be directed from the ground.

Air traffic controllers are facing a surge in air traffic in general, not just of the unmanned variety, and Mike Lissone, UAS ATM integration manager for Eurocontrol, said there is an “onslaught of new technology and business cases.” 

However, he said merely accommodating unmanned aircraft by moving manned aircraft out of the way is not the solution, and UAS should instead be fully integrated. Contingency procedures in case of emergencies should also be standardized, which he noted will be a challenge for Europe.

“We would like them to be harmonized. We would like them to be predictable,” he said, but “sometimes, for Europe, we are quite united in our division.”

Jim Pala, a former UAS remote pilot who now works at IFALPA, the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations, said IFALPA does not want to change the rules for manned aircraft to accommodate unmanned ones.

He also said IFALPA believes that unmanned aircraft should have one pilot per aircraft responsible for their option, and that the organization does not believe that autonomous vehicles can be integrated into the airspace at this time.

Asked by an audience member if that was being inflexible, Pala said, “yeah, that is being inflexible, but every aircraft can have in-flight emergencies. And if there are multiples [aircraft], how is that going to be dealt with?”

Muriel Preux, director of the drones project for France’s DGAC, said France has seen an explosion in drone interest, particularly from small UAS users, which has forced the agency to operate in ways it never did before, such as by publishing a book on how they should be flown.

“We are not used to speaking to the general public, and we are not used to speaking to the non-aviation world,” she said, but are now doing both.

France has set up a Civil Drones Council to help deal with the issue, and said the country believes in mandatory drone registration, not just among commercial users but for hobbyists as well. A similar registry in the United States was recently struck down by the courts, although it is believed that the pending reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration will revive it.

Electronic identification is also needed, and France has demonstrated such a system at the 2016 Paris Air Show and is currently testing it at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Asked if an international registration database should be set up, Preux said that although it’s needed “quite urgently” in France, she’s not sure if a multinational one is required.

The discussion continues tomorrow, as ICAO presents a second conference, Drone Deploy, where industry stakeholders will share research, best practices and lessons learned related to UTM systems. AUVSI President and CEO Brian Wynne will lead panel discussions, as will Tracy Lamb, AUVSI’s vice president of regulatory and safety affairs and chief pilot.

Below: Mike Lissone of Eurocontrol makes a point as Jim Pala of IFALPA listens.