SAFIR-Med October 2021 Newsletter

  • November 3, 2021

Safe and Flexible Integration of Advanced U-Space Services Focusing on Medical Air Mobility

October 2021 | E-newsletter

Newsletter #3 | SAFIR-Med

Dear readers,

In this issue you will read about the very anticipated SESAR JU Spotlight event in November and about a use case in China where  Ehang, one of the SAFIR-Med project UAV providers, supported the government and the public healthcare system through the COVID-19 pandemic. You will find out more about the social acceptance of the UAV technology used in healthcare, and about our upcoming Very Large Demonstration and the scenarios we are working on. Finally, you will learn how our partner Droniq is using their expertise in developing the first drone traffic system in Germany in the SAFIR-Med project, and you will be able to download the SAFIR-Med brochure. As always, you are invited to follow us and subscribe to the SAFIR-Med newsletter.  

Enjoy your reading!

Mikael Shamim / Helicus, SAFIR-Med coordinator 
Georgia Nikolakopoulou / Futureneeds, SAFIR-Med Communications Manager

  • NEWS

Register for the SESAR JU Spotlight Event

The SAFIR-Med Project is proud to co-organise with SESAR JU an event that will put a spotlight on medical air mobility. ​Drone technology is rapidly evolving, and it is critical to build the infrastructure and resources necessary to ensure proper handling and trust in its use for medical product delivery. With the sudden impulse from COVID-19 and upcoming developments in EU drone legislation, the landscape is changing in favour of medical drones. As this market continues to grow, the pressure is on to make sure that drones are integrated safely and securely into European airspace (U-space).

The event will showcase some of the U-space services and use cases being researched, developed and demonstrated within the SESAR 2020 programme, aiming to make drone services for medical air mobility a reality.

  • NEWS

SAFIR-Med partner Ehang pioneering Medical Air Mobility fighting against coronavirus

Since the beginning of the recent coronavirus resurgence in China, EHang, our  eVTOL partner in the SAFIR-Med project, has stepped up as a first-responder and leveraged its autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) technology by dispatching a flight operations team and multiple AAVs for COVID-19 relief and control efforts in Guangzhou City. 

As of today, EHang is the only passenger eVTOL partner in the SAFIR-Med project that aims to promote the use of unmanned aviation in healthcare systems across the European Union.  How the experience gained in China will help formulate the context for similar services integration in the European airspace? How is it going to be integrated in the SAFIR-Med Very Large Demonstrations?  

  • NEWS

“Drones and sour milk” or How drones will affect our lives

Unmanned air traffic is currently increasing due to recreation but also due to business opportunities and the ecological benefits of deploying drones. Is this rise of drones socially acceptable? Every innovation or change that has an impact on our society initially causes some reticence.

“In 1839 angry farmers feared that the arrival of the steam train would cause cows to give sour milk.”

Not that it is so bad now, but questions are also being asked about the use of drones, another new means of transport. Won’t my privacy be violated? Won’t it cause noise pollution? What about safety? Questions that are partly triggered by “techno fear”, but of course, also justified. The EASA study of the societal acceptance of Urban Air Mobility operations shows that the innovation that drones bring to the health sector has a highly positive impact on the way drones are viewed.

How does this study support the SAFIR-Med project use cases proving that UAVs can play a crucial role not only within healthcare but in also our society?

  • NEWS

Preparing our Very Large Demonstration Scenarios

After the concept of operation of the SAFIR-Med project has been elaborated, it is time to go forward for real time demonstrations. This is within a dedicated work package that SAFIR-Med consortium members are working on preparation of real time flights operations which are planned in Spring and Summer 2022. 

But what is the purpose of this Very Large Demonstration (VLD)? What are the objectives and how are they going to be achieved? 

Source: Those News come to ATOS Association Members and readers thanks to SAFIR-Med Project