McElhanney joins Alberta’s remote aircraft traffic management trials
July 17, 2024
By CCE Staff
Graphic courtesy McElhanney.
Consulting engineering firm McElhanney has partnered with Transport Canada and airspace management solution provider AirMarket (AM) to run a series of remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) traffic management trials in Alberta.
The trials aim to establish air traffic control (ATC) infrastructure and technologies to open ‘beyond visual line of sight’ (BVLOS) RPAS flight opportunities. Today’s drones are limited by short flight plans and have no ability to efficiently co-ordinate or ‘de-conflict’ with other airspace traffic; these issues will need to be remedied.
“Right now, any commercial BVLOS RPAS flight requires a special certification,” explains McElhanney’s RPAS program co-ordinator, Stefan Kischkel, “but come April 2025, regulations will allow BVLOS flights without these limitations.”
Through the partnership, McElhanney joins an alliance of more than 30 regulatory associations, local governments, academic institutions, airports, users, service providers and technology suppliers, all working to refine execution plans to make commercial BVLOS flights feasible. Dubbed the ‘iART Alliance,’ the group seeks to ensure Canadian technology and infrastructure will be ready for next spring’s regulatory changes.
“With commercial BVLOS flights, we’ll be able to improve costs, cover more ground and deliver continuous data sets over larger areas than ever before,” says Kischkel. “These advances will create efficiencies for clients across the transportation, energy and resources sectors.”
The University of Alberta, Ottawa’s Carleton University and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) will validate the authority of the alliance’s work by providing quantitative analysis of its recommendations.
