In 2018 Operation Zenith gave a view of the future of air traffic management, demonstrating how, by using the right technology, it’s possible to safely integrate unmanned traffic into controlled airspace and open up these skies to all air users.
Operation Zenith is the codename for a programme of live demonstrations of Air Traffic Management (ATM) and Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) integration in controlled airspace. Critical to the success of the programme was to demonstrate several key characteristics that also set the demonstrations apart from other drone demos observed worldwide.
Realistic use of airspace: to date, most demos – particularly of BVLOS operations – take place in segregated airspace. In Operation Zenith, we wanted to show true integration, not doing anything different or ‘special’ for the introduction of drone traffic in an otherwise sensitive area. This is why we chose a busy, international airport.
Featuring both cooperative and uncooperative traffic: we firmly believe that no UTM solution can be considered complete without due attention being given to the uncooperative airspace picture. That’s why GuardianUTM O/S has real capabilities to integrate and connect with numerous detection systems to properly cater for the threat and challenges posed by uncooperative unmanned traffic.
Demonstrate integration with ATM: Both from a technology and an operational procedures perspective, drones have immense potential to transform lives and revolutionise businesses, but there are many issues blocking their routine and common use – particularly beyond visual line of sight and fully-automated flights.
A key reason for this is ‘separation’: the ability to ensure that a drone doesn’t cause any harm to other air traffic, especially manned aviation. Although various solutions have been proposed, these are often restricted to sensors on the drone or require participation from multiple manufacturers to adopt a common system of hardware which does not scale well or offer much room for innovation.
Many have proposed UTM solutions as the answer, but typically such proposed implementations are deliberately incomplete, avoiding tackling the actual blocking issues by focusing instead on ‘walled garden’ scenarios involving an entire vertical stack of technology.
Altitude Angel, NATS, and our partners which include uAvionix, HeliGuy, DJI and Vodafone, believe that no UTM solution is complete without the ability to integrate deeply and seamlessly into existing ATM systems and processes, and to propose how both cooperative and uncooperative drone traffic (and potential risks) can be detected and mitigated.
The solution proposed here, at Manchester Airport, is designed for deployment by Air Navigation Service Providers and provides a fully configurable, standards-compliant platform for ANSP use. It is powered using GuardianUTM Airspace Management Operating System, a purpose-built platform which allows the secure data exchange between ATM systems and UTM providers.
You can read more about Operation Zenith here.