Rome, April 6, 2020 – D-Flight, the company of the ENAV group responsible for the U-Space platform for the provision of services for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and EuroUSC Italia, a consultancy company (candidate Qualified Entity) in the aviation sector, have signed a partnership aimed at integrating the SAMWISE software among the services offered through the D-Flight portal.
SAMWISE is a web tool developed according to the best practices (SORA methodology – Specific Operations Risk Assessment – proposed by JARUS) recommended by EASA and made available online by EuroUSC Italia to perform the safety risk analysis needed in the “specific” category starting from the July 1st 2020.
The tool allows to perform a first feasibility check of a drone operation and identify the possible requirements to be met, before proceeding with a complete analysis. If the operation falls into the specific category, the tool provides a step by step guided procedure to assess the risk for both third parties on the ground and in the air according to SORA. From the combined evaluation of these two aspects, SAMWISE automatically calculates the risk level of the operation (called SAIL, or Specific Assurance and Integrity Level, in SORA jargon) allowing the user to identify the list of mitigations that must be implemented to ensure that the operation can be carried out safely.
SAMWISE obviously does not replace the need to submit the risk analysis to ENAC, but allows a quicker execution of the process, reducing the time needed by the operator to perform the whole process.
Its integration within the U-Space platform by providing direct access from the D-Flight portal, will allow an increased automation of the risk analysis process thus simplifying and speeding up the procedures for all registered users.
Cristiano Baldoni, CEO of D-Flight S.p.A, said:
“I am very satisfied about this collaboration, which builds upon the experience of the DIODE demonstration project. Among the objectives of D-Flight there is certainly the ability of providing clear and simple answers to users in order to support them operating safely in the complex world of drones. EuroUSC Italia has a long-standing experience and significant skills in this context and has already made significant progress in the development of an online service to support drone operators in compiling their Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA)“.
Marco Ducci, CEO of EuroUSC Italia S.r.l added:
“Signing this partnership represents the beginning of a collaboration aimed at supporting the implementation in Italy of U-Space services (alias UTM – Unmanned Traffic Management), facilitating users in carrying out risk analyses. By ensuring a good level of harmonisation, this is expected to translate into greater speed in obtaining authorisations thanks to a well-structured and, above all, increasingly automated system“.
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D-Flight is the new portal for the management of drone operations that makes available to operators: i) the registration of the aircraft in the Italian database, according to Art. 14 of EU Regulation 2019/947, ii) the assignment of a univocal identification code for each of them, iii) the retrieval of useful information to plan the flight with drones safely and in compliance with said Regulation which will become applicable on 01 July 2020.
ENAC, the Italian Aviation Authority, has already anticipated some of the new European standards in the third edition of the National Remote Piloted Aircraft Regulation, of 15 December 2019. D-Flight was designated to make available “the portal dedicated to UAS operators for the provision of registration services, geo-awareness, remote identification and publication of information on geographical areas “. From 01 March 2020, all UAS operators are obliged to register their drones on the platform, then placing the identification QR-code on the drone. Through the D-Flight portal, moreover, the declarations will also be submitted directly to ENAC.
D-Flight is also at the forefront for the further development of the U-Space, according to the roadmap developed and proposed by the European Commission and SESAR JU in the U-Space Blueprint document, considering the services identified by the CORUS project of which ENAV was partner. To accompany this effort, EuroUSC Italia is active partner for the global standardisation of these new services in ISO.
