Airspace management and UTM

This category covers uncrewed traffic management, airspace authorisation services, conformance monitoring and the flight planning software built around them. The autonomy on the aircraft is a separate guide, and so is the company that flies missions. The buyer is usually an operator with a growing fleet who has discovered that airspace paperwork, not flying, is the bottleneck.

Know what the FAA itself provides

The FAA UAS Data Exchange shares airspace data between the agency and industry, and its first partnership, the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability, automates the application and approval process for airspace authorisations.¹ It gives drone pilots access to controlled airspace at or below 400 feet, carries temporary flight restriction and special use airspace information, and gives air traffic visibility of where and when drones will operate.¹ The applications that reach it come from companies the FAA has approved to provide the service, known as UAS service suppliers.¹ So the first question to any vendor is simple: are you an approved supplier for that capability, and if not, what exactly are you providing. The answer separates a regulated service from a mapping layer with a nice interface.

What sits above the automated case

Automated authorisation covers a defined set of situations. Your operation may need more: a waiver, an exemption, or operations outside the base rules, which are governed by the small uncrewed aircraft rules and their exceptions for air carrier operations and for operations conducted under an exemption or under Part 91 where elected.² Ask the vendor which approvals its customers have obtained using its evidence, and ask what the software actually produced for that application. Ask how conformance is monitored during a flight, what happens when an aircraft leaves its authorised volume, and who is notified. Ask how the system handles remote identification data, given the rule's design, production and declaration of compliance requirements and the fact that remote identification is in force for operators required to register.^3,4

Integration, data and dependence

Ask what the interfaces are to your fleet management, your aircraft and your customer's systems. Ask where flight data is stored, who has access, what is shared with third parties and what leaves the country. Ask what the service level commitment is, what the outage history has been, and what your operation does when the service is unavailable. Ask how pricing scales: per pilot, per aircraft, per flight or per site, and what a fleet double does to the bill. Ask what happens to your historical flight records if you leave, and in what format they are returned.

Questions that sort suppliers

Ask whether the vendor is an FAA-approved service supplier and for which capability. Ask for a customer's approval package the software supported. Ask for the uptime record for the last twelve months. Ask what your exit looks like, contractually and technically.