Operators Free to Fly Certified eBees Near Residential, Commercial, Industrial and Recreational Areas in Europe
senseFly, an AgEagle company announces that eBee X, eBee Geo and eBee Ag are the first commercial drones to be designated with the C2 class identification label in accordance with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulations. As of August 22, 2022, drone operators flying C2 labeled eBees will be able to conduct missions in the “Open Category”, with all the advantages that this entails.
The C2 certification allows the eBee X series, with correct labelling, to fly at a horizontal distance of 30 meters from uninvolved people. By contrast, heavy drones like VTOLs or quadcopters must maintain a distance of 150 meters from people and any residential, commercial, industrial and recreational areas, limiting their operational capabilities to remote zones.
According to Barrett Mooney, Chairman and CEO of AgEagle, “When compared to the weight and safety profiles of other competitive commercial drones, only the eBee are cleared to fly commercial operations near people with the C2 class identification label. This represents a huge market differential for our customers in Europe, that will be able to operate around populated areas without any formal permission or regulatory waiver”.
In addition, the eBee X series are also the industry’s first drones (June 2022) to receive a Design Verification Report (DVR) from EASA on M2 Ground Risk Mitigation for the European “Specific Category” to conduct BVLOS and Operations Over People (OOP). The DVR paves the way for European drone operators to seek approvals from their applicable National Aviation Authorities.
To be designated as a C2 aircraft, eBees underwent rigorous testing and evaluation by the accredited laboratory NavCert GmbH to confirm that they meet specific EASA criteria. C2 class aircraft must weigh less than 4 kg / 8.8 lbs maximum takeoff weight (MTOM), have remote ID and geo-awareness, and be compliant with the safety and manufacturing standards of the European Union.
Marcel Visser, Managing Director of NavCert GmbH, stated, “We congratulate senseFly on this important achievement, and we wish them a high market share for the eBee X series drones. We are grateful that NavCert has been selected as the Notified Body (NB 2603) to assess the eBee X series fixed-wing drones for the CE mark. Our background in the aviation industry and the development of the EN 4709 standard has been essential to performing the technical assessments required in the Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945 on unmanned aircraft systems. We will continue to ensure the required level of quality and safety for drone operations in the European Union”.
All eBee X, eBee Ag and eBee Geo drones shipped by senseFly, an AgEagle company, in September 2022, will include the C2 label at no extra cost.
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About AgEagle Aerial Systems Inc.
AgEagle (NYSE American: UAVS) and its wholly owned subsidiaries, senseFly, MicaSense and Measure are actively engaged in designing and delivering best-in-class drones, sensors and software that solve important problems for our customers. Founded in 2010, AgEagle was originally formed to pioneer proprietary, professional-grade, fixed winged drones and aerial imagery-based data collection and analytics solutions for the agriculture industry. Today, AgEagle is a leading provider of full stack drone solutions for customers worldwide in the energy, construction, agriculture and government verticals.
About NavCert GmbH.
NavCert is the first laboratory ever accredited in Europe in the field of GNSS. The firm provides worldwide technical services, verification, validation, and voluntary certification services in the areas of precise positioning, navigation, velocity and timing. NavCert is accredited as certification body for the assessing of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) by the Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle (DAkkS) and is a Notified Body (NB 2603) of the German Federal Office of Civil Aeronautics for the EU Type Examination and Certification of fixed-wing, VTOL and multicopter UAS in classes C0 to C6 in the Open Category according to the Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/945. NavCert chairs the coordination group of notified bodies for UAS. These activities are complemented by GAP analysis of specification and documentation and pre-testing.
