Commercial and public safety UAS operators share airspace at GUTMA event

Live operations at the Global UTM Association’s (GUTMA) Harmonized Skies event in Texas have demonstrated the feasibility of public safety and commercial drone operators sharing airspace.

The unified beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS)operations were made possible through an industry collaboration including Manna Drone Delivery, Wing, Zipline, DroneUp, and ANRA Technologies working alongside the US Federal Aviation Administration and public safety agencies such as the Arlington Police Department. Support was provided by NASA’s Ames Research Centre.

In a LinkedIn post, founder and CEO of ANRA Technologies, Amit Ganjoo said the demonstration marked “a paradigm shift in how we manage our skies” and added “it’s incredible to have over 30 regulators from around the world attending and observing this groundbreaking effort”.

Ganjoo also explained that ANRA’s NOON UTM system provided coordination for both the Arlington Police Department and Manna Drone Delivery, supporting the first-ever public safety and commercial drone operations in shared airspace, while Wing operated on their vertically integrated UTM platform.

“Together, we’ve set a new standard for safe, scalable, and interoperable airspace management,” Ganjoo said.