A Proposed Approach to a 2019 UTM Concept of Operations

We present an approach to an Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management (UTM) Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for the New York Unmanned Aircraft System Test Site (NYUASTS). With a mandate for UTM development in the 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act (Public Law 115-254, enacted October 5, 2018) [1], UTM is on a path to operationalization. New York State committed in 2016 to create a UTM corridor in airspace above upstate New York. New York has charged the NUAIR Alliance, as part of NYUASTS, with building a UTM test corridor between Syracuse and Rome, New York. NUAIR is developing the CONOPS and program plan for the corridor. The New York UTM CONOPS will support operational and technical requirements, together with safety cases, to enable regional commercial UTM operations, building on UTM as a means for cooperative traffic management for UAS and other participating aircraft. For UAS to have access to airspace, cooperative air traffic management. The New York CONOPS will cover key conceptual and operational elements to begin UTM corridor operations testing in 2019, assuming UTM capabilities and services adhere to the UTM construct, principles, and conceptual elements described in the May 2018 FAA UTM CONOPS and the FAA-NASA UTM research transition plan. However, these artifacts apply mostly to UTM operations in uncontrolled airspace below 400 feet above ground level (AGL) and do not envision UTM evolution into eventual highly-automated urban air mobility (UAM) applications. The 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act made changes to the legal framework for UAS, including provisions for expanded UAS and UTM testing at FAA-designated UAS Test Sites. The legislation included congressional mandates affecting UAS regulation, and also introduce a new chapter in the United States Code for unmanned aircraft systems (Title 49 USC Chapter 448). This paper discusses CONOPS in an overall context of FAA UAS policy and regulation, prior experience with CONOPS, and maturation of operational capability.