The first flights in the EU project implementing drones over cities launched by Dronehub

The first series of test flights with drones got underway in November as part of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) large-scale demonstration. Dronehub is the first company to perform the trial flights as part of the UAM project. Thanks to the project, flight safety requirements will be developed, as well as regulations and standardizations to support the development of drone flights in urban space in the EU.

Our CEO and founder Vadym Melnyk underlines that we, as a Dronehub, feel a great responsibility, but also an honour, that the first demo flights over cities are starting here in Poland.

“It is a big thing that Poland adds not a small brick, but a whole pillar to the construction of urban air mobility throughout the European Union. Based on the results of, inter alia, our flights over Rzeszów, guidelines for drone flights will be developed, as drones in the near future will become a common sight over the European cities” – says Vadym.

The flights in Poland are carried out by Dronehub – the European leader in the drone-in-a-box systems – with the support of Honeywell, which provides equipment and sensors for drones, and the Altitude Angel, responsible for the software. These companies are part of the Uspace4UAM consortium, which was selected for drone flights in urban conditions in four European countries: Poland, the Czech Republic, Great Britain, and Spain. The project aims to enable the safe integration of urban air mobility, including flights with autonomous drones, in the airspace of the European Union.

The project is co-funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme within the framework of the SESAR Joint Undertaking, an EU public-private partnership that coordinates all air traffic management research and innovation activities. We have informed you about this project in April on our blog here.

By mid-2022, we will carry out approximately 160 flights over the Aviation Valley near Rzeszów. We will carry out flights for three scenarios of the use of autonomous drones in the public service: 

• to provide emergency services with aerial monitoring from accident sites; 
• to take a series of ortho- and photogrammetric photos for the needs of public institutions; 
• to transport AED defibrillators in life-threatening situations.

“Dronehub demos within Uspace4UAM started in November 2021, and we will end in June 2022. During this time, amongst other objectives, we will check how drones react to different and rapidly changing weather conditions. Thanks to these 160 flights we plan to carry out, we will be able to adjust both hardware and software to the real city conditions and to the needs of public services. Our conclusions and recommendations will be used to help smooth Urban Air mobility deployment in Europe” – adds Jakub Węglarz, project manager, responsible at Dronehub for the implementation of the project.

As part of the Urban Air Mobility project, flight safety requirements will be developed, as well as regulations and standardizations to support the development of drone flights in urban space in the EU. The project aims to show the technologies of autonomous drones that can be used in cities to improve safety and help security services to manage emergencies.

The Uspace4UAM consortium is implementing a project commissioned by the SESAR Joint Undertaking (Single European Sky ATM Research), which is developing the solutions for delivering smart and sustainable aviation. Drone flights over Poland will therefore contribute to the development of EU-wide regulations and systems that will allow increasing the number of flights by aircraft – including drones – in the EU skies in the coming years while improving safety.