With 11 favourable votes, 1 abstention and no contrary votes, on 27 Apr 2020, ISO Technical Committee TC/20 (Aerospace) has approved the launch of the New Work Item (NWI) 5015-2 to develop an international standard on “Vertiport Operation”.
Among the received comments, the US standard institute (ANSI) stated that the proposal was “nicely written, and cleverly aligned to be complimentary with the ASTM work item”.
In fact, ISO intends to develop standards for the infrastructure of vertiports serving small (less than 150 kg) drones carrying cargo, while relying on an ASTM standard for vertiports serving passenger-carrying VTOLs up to 3175 kg. For both cases, ISO 5015-2 will cover operational and service requirements, including requirements for the vertiport operator. Some more detailed standards (e.g. battery chargers) might come from EUROCAE WG 112.
Ultimately, these standards may be recognised by aviation authorities (e.g. EASA) as Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) in respect of their emerging rules on vertiports.
The work on ISO 5015-2 will be progressed by WG/3 of Sub-Committee SC/16 (UAS) and the Project Leader is Filippo Tomasello of EuroUSC-Italia, member of the AW-Drones consortium.
