The Missing Link of UTM

As the use cases for rural unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) missions are evolving, the next step is to make on-site UAV missions controlled over long distances. The control is called Beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and there is a great need for use cases to become autonomous or self-sustaining over long distances. Designing airspace to include autonomous and BVLOS UAV involves proposals for traffic that do not exist to date, different actors, and a multitude of risks; system design must answer a wide range of questions before its release. Luckily, most of the technical questions are already solved, most of the safety regulations are there in place in general aviation, and the industry is waiting for a new type of transportation. In this paper, the authors propose action for policymakers on how to approach the challenge of developing UAV Traffic Management (UTM) systems that can be applied to any geographic location and identify missing links in decision-making to enable development.