SafeSky EnterpriseHelicus: SAFIR-Ready Medical Drone Operations
How SafeSky enables bi-directional traffic visibility for emergency medical drone logistics in the SAFIR-Ready project
About Helicus & SAFIR-Ready
Helicus is the coordinator of the SAFIR-Ready project, a groundbreaking initiative funded by the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking program under the European Commission's Horizon Europe. The project aims to transform emergency medical and critical infrastructure responses through Advanced Aerial Mobility and U-Space technologies.
Project Scope:
European-scale medical drone operations coordinated through advanced U-Space services
Challenge:
Ensuring real-time traffic awareness and bi-directional visibility between medical drones and manned aviation across urban and suburban environments
The Challenge
Emergency medical drone operations in Belgium present unique operational requirements:
Time-Critical Operations
Medical emergencies demand rapid deployment with no time for lengthy pre-flight traffic analysis or manual coordination
Dense Airspace
Operations in Belgium require coordination with high-density manned aviation traffic including helicopters, air ambulances, and general aviation
Mutual Awareness
Need for bi-directional visibility: medical drones must see manned traffic AND manned pilots must see medical drones
U-Space Integration
Must integrate with European U-Space architecture for traffic management, surveillance, and automated services
The Solution
SafeSky provides three critical capabilities for the SAFIR-Ready medical drone operations:
Real-Time Manned Traffic Feed
Medical drone operations receive live positions of all nearby manned aircraft through the SafeSky UAV Traffic API. This includes helicopters, air ambulances, general aviation, and other traffic from 30+ sources including ADS-B, FLARM, OGN, and pilot-reported positions via the SafeSky mobile app.
Bi-directional Position Sharing
Medical drone positions are shared back into the SafeSky network, making them visible to manned aviation pilots using the SafeSky mobile app. This creates mutual awareness - medical drones see manned traffic, and manned pilots see medical drones, enabling proactive conflict avoidance.
U-Space Integration
SafeSky's integration supports SAFIR-Ready's U-Space architecture, providing surveillance data that feeds into traffic fusion modules and enables automated airspace management for mission-ready operations.
Project Status
Content Development in Progress
This case study is being developed in collaboration with Helicus. Detailed operational results, metrics, and specific achievements will be added as the SAFIR-Ready project continues to deliver mission-ready capabilities across Europe.
Real-time bi-directional traffic visibility is essential for our medical drone operations. SafeSky enables us to see manned aviation whilst making our emergency flights visible to other pilots, which is critical for safe U-Space integration.
Mikael Shamim
CEO, Helicus
Learn More About SAFIR-Ready
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