The Global UTM Association has just celebrated its first anniversary. Within one year, the Association grew from 15 to over 50 members representing 16 countries from all over the world, and started an ambitious journey towards worldwide recognition. Taking into consideration the fact that the UTM industry is still relatively new, it is safe to say that the Association’s membership covers all the required fields of expertise, including air navigation services, telecommunication infrastructure, hardware (drones and components) and software, and various government bodies.

The association has launched three working groups since July 2016 (UTM Architecture, Data Exchange, and Registration-Identification) and it has published two documents: the overall UTM architecture and a flight declaration protocol. The key findings of the working groups, coupled with an international overview and a ‘Next Steps’ session, were presented in front of 90 industry professionals at the Global UTM Conference, hosted by GUTMA on June 26, 2017 in Montreal.*

Many Association members regularly participate in international trade shows and congresses around the world, as exhibitors or speakers. Among other UAS-related expos and conferences, the main UTM events up to June 2017 where GUTMA itself was represented were: the UTM Convention (Syracuse, NY), EASA’s High Level Drone Conference (Warsaw, PL), the World ATM Congress (Madrid, ES), the METI International UTM Seminar (Chiba, JP), and the U-Space Workshop (The Hague, NL). Beyond these public appearances, the Association has been invited to participate in numerous international initiatives.

At its General Assembly held on June 25, 2017 in Montreal, GUTMA elected its Board of Directors for 2017-2018. The Board is composed of nine members: Jonathan Evans (Skyward) as president, Marc Kegelaers (Unifly) as vice president, Lorenzo Murzilli (Swiss FOCA) as treasurer, and members Sebastian Babiarz (Airmap), Samuel Dépraz (SenseFly (Parrot Group)), Kei Ikami (NTT Data), Richard Parker (Altitude Angel), Christian Struwe (DJI), and Mark Watson (NATS).

The new Board will focus on effective international outreach and the agile development of protocols, standards, and guidance for UAS identification and registration in the short-term.

Since there is still a long way to go to achieve a globally interoperable UTM, the Association will dedicate even more effort in 2017-2018 to foster a safe and efficient UAS integration into civil airspace.

* In a proper browser, such as google photo, the feature image could be viewed in 360°.

 

Global UTM Association Board 2017–2018

And in the photo above, from left to right:

 

Secretary General: Benoit Curdy