[Peetwo]

Su_Spence on industry tote boards and the Jetsons?? - 

Via Fort Fumble:

Director of Aviation Safety, Pip Spence

Australian aviation quietly reached several milestones in recent weeks that demonstrate its ongoing potential as a dynamic and evolving industry.

We're all aware that drones are an integral and growing part of our aviation landscape and that innovators are finding a widening range of uses for them.

Such is the growth in this sector that the number of people holding a Remote Pilot Licence (RePL) recently topped 30,000 for the first time and closed the gap on the number of aeroplane and helicopter licence holders.

Like a good Melbourne Cup, the two categories have been jockeying for position and a post-COVID surge kept transport, commercial, private and recreational pilots with a current medical ahead by a length.

But the staying power of the RePL category means the race is not yet run and last week the 30,870 RePL holders were closing the gap with the 32,871 pilots with valid medicals.

This came after the number of remote pilot licences jumped more than 20% in the 2022-23 fiscal year and the number of registered drones rose 11%.

Anybody who's seen the amazing Mission Impossible footage of Tom Cruise riding a motorbike off a cliff as he's shadowed by drones filming the stunt can see how versatile these aircraft have become.

Already drones are proving their worth in fields ranging from mining to photography and the delivery of time-sensitive payloads such as medicines and pathology samples.

Bigger drones also make cargo operations an option and we have already been involved in trials of commercial deliveries with companies such as Wing and Swoop Aero.

We are seeing keen interest from the agriculture sector in applications operating beyond the visual line-of-sight outside of controlled airspace (BVLOS OCTA).

To support the evolution of this technology, CASA has been progressing a number of initiatives set out in the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Strategic Regulatory Roadmap we launched a year ago.

These include introducing a new BVLOS OCTA exam for the RPAS industry, releasing guidance material for vertiports (which I’ll come back to shortly) and by cutting red tape in other areas.

We also provide operators with a list of CASA-verified drone safety apps that tell them where they can and can’t fly drones according to aviation legislation and we’re working on initiatives with manufacturers as well as federal and state departments and agencies.

A second milestone was the first application to certify an Australian-made AAM aircraft.

The Vertiia electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft has been under development for several years by NSW company AMSL Aero, co-founded by aeronautical engineer Andrew Moore and former Google executive Siobhan Lyndon.

The Vertiia will be able to accommodate five people with a range of 1000km using a hydrogen fuel cell to power its electric engines and a cruise speed of 300kmh. Importantly, AMSL is targeting safety by building triple redundancy into its systems.

The aircraft has been pitched initially at the medical transport market — particularly in rural, regional and remote Australia — but there are also air taxi, cargo and other emergency service possibilities.

It is part of a new breed of aircraft aiming for zero operational carbon emissions and a smaller noise footprint compared with conventional aircraft.

This will be a multi-year certification project for CASA that will break new ground, deal with unfamiliar technologies and be at the forefront of global aircraft type certification.

We want to make sure we learn from international experience, which is why it is so helpful we are collaborating with the US Federal Aviation Administration and Swoop Aero on the joint type and production certification of Swoop Aero’s Kite drone.

As mentioned above, we issued our advisory circular on vertiport design last month.

This is a long-term project and involves complex issues that sometimes go beyond CASA to areas controlled by other government agencies and departments.

We expect early AAM aircraft to use existing aerodrome and helicopter landing site infrastructure.

But we believe AAM growth and the need to ensure helicopter operations are not adversely affected will ultimately require this new type of separate facility.

The vertiport consultation and a strong response to a series of associated webinars demonstrated a keen interest in Australia’s aviation future.

The developments outlined here offer a glimpse of that future and it’s one in which CASA intends to play a key role.

All the best

Pip

Plus: https://updates.communication.casa.gov.a...-july-2023

I continue to despair for our once proud and burgeoning GA industry...

MTF...P2