Drones

After a discussion of terminology, the chapter aims to provide an analysis of drones by and within the 1944 Chicago Convention with their undoubted qualification as aircraft. The growing interest in unmanned aircraft shown by the ICAO since the early 2000s, with the aim of achieving the objective represented by the progressive use of such vehicles in non-segregated airspace, is thus evidence of an enlightened approach, as is the adoption of the Manual on Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS), in 2015, and, most of all, the gradual amendment of the relevant ICAO Annexes. The EU Institutions began to consider the importance of integrating traditional and unmanned aviation only after 2010 and with a rather cautious attitude. They became convinced of the need to implement a unified regulatory approach only afterwords, with Reg. 2018/1139 and with the following legislative measures relating to the design and manufacture of UAS, the rules for their operation in the Single European Sky and those dedicated to the regulation of U-Space.