Drones will need to adhere to rules of the air to operate safely alongside manned aviation. This is especially important in urban environments. Demonstrations carried out by members of the VUTURA consortium looked at the new digital smart cities, and how unmanned vehicles can become a part of this interconnected world.

VUTURA focused on four major goals. These are: validating the use of shared airspace between existing, manned airspace users and drones; validating more than one U-space service provider providing U-space services in a specific airspace and the procedures needed to support drone flights; ensuring alignment of regulation and standardisation between SESAR developments and U-space service providers; and increasing the pace by which European cities and companies exploit emerging technologies related to drones. The goal was to improve the quality of life in cities, create concrete socio-economic outcomes and help European companies to take a leading position in the new smart city market.

The consortium conducted beyond visual line of sight demonstration flights involving multiple U-space service providers in rural, urban and smart city environments. Each scenario featured two service providers coordinating their services where interoperability was a major focus. Manned aviation, different levels of automation, commercial and leisure drones, off-the- shelf drones as well as custom made ones all featured in the scenarios. Information was shared allowing all stakeholders to access the data via a web interface. In the tests, drones gave way to high priority drones autonomously, for example medical deliveries, and the U-space service providers facilitated the drone traffic de- confliction using interoperable systems.

The work done by VUTURA demonstrated that commercial drone traffic can safely co- exist with traditional air traffic in different kinds of environments and the technology to safely manage drone traffic is feasible, scalable and interoperable. It also flagged up areas in need of further research. This includes closer alignment of flight planning activity by USSPs and a set of procedures for cross-border flight planning; a common interface for exchanging information and acceptable transmission delay; and reliable detect and avoid capability. Among key findings, VUTURA concluded that airspace users need to be registered in order to share airspace, be identifiable and meet geofencing requirements before the industry can move closer to supporting urban air mobility.