FAA approves Vantis for safety mitigation for BVLOS flights

By The Robot Report Staff | September 6, 2024

The Northern Plains UAS Test Site, a North Dakota state agency, yesterday said that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has signed a letter of acceptance for the use of Vantis as safety mitigation for beyond visual line-of-sight, or BVLOS, drone operations.

“This comprehensive approach moves away from relying solely on operational restrictions, focusing on systemic risk management,” stated Jeff Richards, an air traffic management (ATM) operations expert at Thales, a technology partner of Vantis. “Vantis acts as the operational backbone, providing operators with a level of support and safety that can be referenced directly as a risk mitigator for commercial BVLOS operations.”

Founded in 2019 with a $28 million investment from North Dakota, Vantis is a statewide network working to enable uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) BVLOS flights. It brings together leaders from aviation, telecommunications, and government to foster innovation. The Grand Forks, N.D.-based organization said it is building infrastructure to create a “one-stop, turnkey network to facilitate UAS growth.”

Vantis hopes to remove barriers for drone operators

No one expects a commercial pilot to operate a plane completely alone without any additional eyes on the sky to ensure a safe flight, noted Vantis. The company’s founders said they believe UAV operators should have the same network of support that exists for crewed flights, including radar, air traffic control, and operations centers.

Vantis said its offerings allow full BVLOS flights, so aerial drones can go farther and into areas otherwise impossible to fly safely due to dangerous conditions or lack of direct ground support.

“Requiring commercial UAS operators to bring their own infrastructure is costly, time-consuming, and doesn’t scale,” said Erin Roesler, deputy executive director for Vantis. “Vantis is the solution: a shared-use suite of services to support repeatable and scalable UAS operations.”

The company’s network includes:

• Remote infrastructure, including surveillance sensors, and command and control radios
• A scalable, high reliability, and low latency backhaul data network
• An uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) made up of a ground-control station and an aircraft
• A mission and network operations center that carries out data correlation and validation, maintenance monitoring, and system testing

FAA exemption provides BVLOS runway for drones

In the U.S., approval under an exemption provides for repeatability and can be referenced for future approvals, accelerating the path to recurring BVLOS flights for all drone operations. Vantis said the letter of acceptance (LOA) enables drone operations pursuant to that exemption. 

Commercial drone operators can thus use Vantis’ services such as collision avoidance in their safety concept of operations (ConOps) to fast-track the waiver process. The LOA can be submitted as an artifact for future operators seeking to fly the same ConOps, it said.

The company added that drone operators can use the LOA as part of a safety case for different ConOps, but they may require further evaluation or demonstrations. While the LOA does not guarantee future approvals or authorizations, the FAA may use it in the analysis in support of other exemptions or waivers.

“This LOA enables us to expand our operations to perform BVLOS flights in Vantis service volumes,” said Doug McDonald, general manager of ISight Drone Services. “This both enhances our operational capabilities and the value we deliver to our customers.”  

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