Unmanned Air Vehicles: Licensing

(asked on 9th February 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has plans to extend licenses for drones, for example allowing drone operators to fly beyond line of sight in non-segregated airspace, rather than in a time-limited temporary danger area.


Answered by
Robert Courts Portrait
Robert Courts
Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
This question was answered on 22nd February 2022

Following discussions with my officials in 2021 and with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), trials for Royal Mail were approved and took place in September and October 2021 and are also due to take place in March and April 2022. Government and the CAA are working with and supporting industry to develop the drone industry.

The Future Flight Challenge programme is a joint Government and industry investment of £300m to develop new and innovative aviation technologies, such as all-electric aircraft and deliveries by drone. In addition, the Government is supporting specific projects through the £1.2m Drone Pathfinder Catalyst Programme, which will support the integration of drones into UK airspace by bringing together drone providers and end users to demonstrate innovative drone use cases and inform regulatory development.

The CAA’s Innovation Hub sandbox also supports the testing and trialling of innovative unmanned aircraft operations and flights beyond visual line of sight to take place in a safe environment and in collaboration with the regulator.

Further, the refreshed Airspace Modernisation Strategy is currently undergoing public consultation. The new Strategy is intended to enable integration, rather than segregation, of new and existing users in the same airspace. Temporary Danger Areas will remain as they are essential to protecting specific temporary activities which cannot be safely integrated, but the current increased use for beyond visual line of sight trials will reduce and ultimately no longer be required.

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