Prospects for unmanned aerial vehicles market development in Poland

Abstract

Currently, the law on the use of unmanned aircraft is passed individually in each EU member state. The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) intends to create uniform community rules, that will regulate UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) flights in each EU country. The main assumptions of the strategics proposed in the draft document prepared by EASA "Introduction of regulatory framework for the use of drones" is the division of flights into categories: open, special and certified, as well as the implementation of the U-Space concept, a platform for the management of unmanned aerial traffic. The article presents provisions regarding the use of unmanned aircraft in Polish airspace in accordance with current standards and regulations. The conditions for obtaining operator qualification certificates (UAVO) are also described, as well as the permissions for the operators, both basic and additional, and the process of obtaining them. These permissions are issued in the form of a qualification certificate after completing the theoretical and practical training and passing the state examination in presence of the examination board in the scope required for obtaining these qualifications. In addition, the authors presented the conditions for performing UAV flights in the airspace structures of FIR Warsaw. The article presents the prospects for unmanned aerial vehicle market development by identifying new legal challenges proposed by EASA, and the outlines of both the draft of the new Regulation as well as the government programme called "Zwirko and Wigura", an initiative resulting from state actions for the development of new technologies, in particular the integrated management systems.