"The air is a highly regulated regime and obviously the regulators have to take a fairly cautious approach to innovation," says Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal. Astraea has been working with the UK regulatory bodies in air traffic control, airworthiness certification and pilot qualification, and the UK bodies link into a wider global network of regulation. What is not yet entirely clear is how unmanned aircraft fit into current rules or whether they will require a whole new set of controls. "The view seems to be not to have a whole set of regulations for unmanned aircraft, but you obviously have to add special conditions on to existing regulations for systems such as the detect and avoid," he says.
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