ICARUS – A tool for managing future manned and unmanned aviation

In manned aviation, an aircraft altitude is determined using pressure difference measurements; however, small drones use altitude determination based on measurements to GNSS satellites; barometric and GNSS based altitudes are totally independent and not compatible altitude systems. New methods and procedures are therefore needed to enable all airspace users and supervisory systems to place all aircraft in the same altitude reference system. The EU-funded ICARUS project introduced an innovative solution for common altitude reference inside very low-level airspace, defining new U-space services and validating them in real operational environments.