Mr. Philip Hughes:

It is becoming more complex. That is it. If we move to the next slide, the members will see that the Commission is trying to push this as regards aerial operations, innovation and developing and implementing U-space regulations. This is the 2.0 strategy the Commission brought forward last year. Again, this is part of the whole move towards integrating it into the public arena.

Going to the next slide, in terms of the service value chain, the area we focus on is airspace management and integration and risk mitigation. How do you integrate drones into controlled airspace? Much of the stuff we do in our innovation centre in Brétigny is a test platform for how that works and how they will come together. The dotted lines show the interface where we are working with a number of the vehicle manufacturers. There are any number of them. Every week, there is a new one coming on stream. What infrastructure is needed to support unmanned aerial vehicle, UAV, operations? There is then the link back to the community. What are the business operations, such as Manna, but also what is the impact on communities? How do you deal with the social acceptability issues? On top of that, it can be seen that you have the regulators devising the standards, both EASA and IACO, and other players in the key value chain in doing that.

That is the sweet spot for us with regard to helping to do that integration work and doing much of the testing. On the next slide, the role of Eurocontrol is really related to research, development, validation, deployment and leadership and promotion to exchange information between all the different players. It is about trying to build the safety cases and risk assessments which are required to do that.

The next slide addresses the big challenges. Operationally, you have to revise the rules of the air to allow the operation of drones in conventional airspace. It is not fit for purpose at the moment. The other problem is that current battery technology constrains flight duration, so that requires new operating methods. If I am using an eVTOL, I need to have a landing space in case the battery fails, with the current technology which exists. On the next slide, from a technical point of view, there are limitations regarding weight and power. Coming back to the Leas-Chathaoirleach's point, it is a low-altitude operation. That creates demand for the kind of infrastructure needed to monitor where that is and how it works. You also need a data exchange model so that you know where they are and what the performance is on a regular basis.

There are a number of technical challenges regarding the required infrastructure. The next slide addresses regulation, which is challenging. I know that in Ireland, the IAA is at the leading edge of developing regulations for what is required. It has worked closely with many of the operators. It is clued into how some of those changes are to be made. I know it is proposing some changes to what needs to be done. However, it represents a steep learning curve. We see that even with EASA in Cologne. It is catching up with what the industry can provide. The standards on which regulations usually depend are still being written. The regulations are catching up with the operational concept as it is developing. From a regulatory point of view, that is the challenge.

The next slide addresses what I would term the political and social acceptability issue. People are obviously not as accepting with regard to safety. There are privacy issues, which I am sure have come to members' attention from all their constituents, and noise. That is a challenge with how this might work. One area where we provide help on airspace risk assessment is to try to mitigate those three problems. It gets into the area of geofencing and closing off certain areas where there are certain sensitivities. That is all part of what needs to be done and challenged. It is an interesting mix. We see it is moving ahead and developing. We need to prepare for it. Our role in Eurocontrol is to help to build tools for how that integration might work.

I think the next slide is the last one. I threw this up to show the challenges with the different types of aircraft which might appear. There is everything from eVTOLs to package delivery, such as Mannas. There are then larger aircraft. As you move further up in the airspace, you can see many new types of vehicles which are starting to appear. How do you integrate that airspace and make it scalable, interoperable and reliable? This is where new technology will really start to come into its own. I do not think that much of that would use conventional air traffic control methodologies. It will be more automated, frankly. That is my quick run-through on drones.