Certiflight First Advisory Board meeting

May 24, 2023

We held the first Certiflight Advisory Board in Naples, Italy, on May 17.

The event brought together about 50 experts, including representatives of the European Commission, EUSPA (EU Agency for the Space Programme and funder of the Certiflight project), ENAC (Italian National Civil Aviation Authority), EUROCONTROL, drone associations, pilots and general aviation, as well as the project partners.

The purpose of the meeting was to illustrate the project broadly to the stakeholders first and then discuss its objectives and solution design.

Taking turns at the table, the experts discussed on panels about the project's challenges and the surrounding ecosystem, such as the planned development of the U-space, the use of Galileo OSNMA service and blockchain and the concept of Smart Contracts.

First panel

Another key part of the meeting was to analyse the impact of Certiflight on safety, society and economy.

The workshop had constant interactive discussion aimed at collecting stakeholders’ feedback, even through specific real-time polls and the explorary survey, which we invite to fill up.

The consolidated data will be presented in a dedicated document and will be of great value for the further definition of the Certiflight services. In conclusion, the statement that best sums up the spirit of the meeting is “Certiflight is the project that is putting all the pieces together”, expressed by Carmen Aguilera, from EUSPA. This strengthen the role that Certiflight has among other relevant research projects funded by the European Union.

According to a participant in the Advisory Board:

Another key part of the meeting was to analyse the impact of Certiflight on safety, society and economy.

The opinion and concerns of the attendees -who formed a broad group with a deep knowledge of the problems that Certiflight intends to solve- were gathered. The workshop had constant interactive discussion aimed at collecting their feedback.

Attendees took several surveys in real time to express their opinions on the Certiflight concept and goals. The consolidated data will be presented in a dedicated document and will be of great value for the further definition of the Certiflight services.

In conclusion, the statement that best sums up the spirit of the meeting is “Certiflight is the project that is putting all the pieces together”, expressed by Carmen Aguilera, from EUSPA.

According to a participant in the Advisory Board:

The Certiflight project certainly responds to legislative and compliance needs of U-space. In the area of integration with Galileo OSNMA, the project will solve the problem of detecting areas where someone intentionally spoofs the satellite signal. Thanks to Certiflight, it will be possible to mark areas potentially at risk of fraud in UTM/ATM systems. On the other hand, Certiflight provides credibility to the process of archiving and storing historical flight data. This will be particularly important in the case of large-scale operations, when one of the parties: a client, a third party, a person ordering a service, a prosecutor, an investigator will need reliable data on flights performed (historical data). Importantly, Certiflight via Smart Contracts, will enable electronic signing of U-space events, understood as complex flight plans, geographical zones, telemetry, etc.

In a nutshell, the Certiflight project performs the function of ensuring data consistency and reliability. In today's world full of cybercriminals, this project seems extremely necessary. I keep my fingers crossed for the implementation.

Pawel Korzec

CEO and founder - Droneradar

The Advisory Board took place from 10.30am to 16.30pm at the Reale Yacht Club Canottieri Savoia in Naples and attendees were present both in person and online via streaming.

Family photo

To see more images from the Advisory Board Meeting, click here.