News

On 28 September, under the initiative of the Estonian Air Navigation Services, trial flights once again took place in Viimsi as part of the GOF2.0 project with drones of different sizes and purposes in cooperation with drone developers and manufacturers CAFA Tech Estonia, Threod Systems Estonia. The flights were used to test systems and technical solutions developed for the management of unmanned air traffic in urban environments and for supporting drone flight in controlled and uncontrolled airspace.

As in previous years, the Estonian Air Navigation Services (EANS) has been of help to the organisers of Rally Estonia in regard to air navigation safety. More than usual air traffic is expected in a relatively small area in connection with the 2022 rally, due to which flight restrictions have been put in place to ensure the safety of both ordinary aircraft and drones.

Today, Estonian Air Navigation Services introduced its first ever remote air traffic control tower. This new tower is an innovative technological solution developed in Estonia to coordinate Estonian regional airports’ flights from a remote center located in Tallinn. The live video stream of Kuressaare Airport can already be seen from afar, but Tartu is going to be the first regional airport to be remotely controlled from Tallinn. The deployment in Tartu will be followed by Kuressaare, Pärnu and Kärdla airports.

In a strategic step to consolidate the company’s activities towards its main offerings of e-governance technologies, secure software and product development, and cybersecurity services, Cybernetica is selling its digital air traffic management tower to Adacel, a global leader in air traffic management and air traffic simulation and training solutions.

The drone market is growing rapidly and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including air taxis, are the next step in future urban air mobility. The SESAR JU project Gulf of Finland 2.0 (GOF 2.0) focuses on the safe, secure, and sustainable integration of unmanned aerial vehicle and air taxi operations in urban airspace. After eight months of intense preparation work, the first wave of trials will start in Tartu, Estonia, on 2 September 2021 and continue in Finland, Poland, and Austria.