A small aircraft passes unannounced over an area where a BVLOS drone is flying a scheduled inspection mission. The drone pilot has no eyes on the sky. He can’t: the drone is flying a few kilometers away, beyond visual line of sight.
And yet the drone reacts. It adjusts its flight path automatically, gets out of the way, and carries on with the mission safely.
It wasn’t luck. It was a system called Detect & Avoid, which does exactly what a human pilot with eyes on the sky would do. Only around the clock, automatically and without getting tired.
Detect & Alert vs. Detect & Avoid
Not all detection systems are the same.
A “detect and alert” system identifies a potential hazard and sends an alert to a human operator, who then has to decide and act.
A “detect and avoid” system goes further. It assesses the collision risk automatically and can adjust the drone’s flight path by itself, without waiting for a human to step in.
Cooperative and non-cooperative detection
Cooperative detection
It uses the signals other aircraft actively broadcast about their position, so the route can be adjusted automatically.
Non-cooperative detection
It uses radar, optical sensors or other methods to identify aircraft that don’t broadcast any position, such as light aircraft or other drones.
Combining the two methods gives a much more complete picture of the airspace around a BVLOS mission.
Why authorities treat these systems as essential
As BVLOS operations expand beyond segregated airspace, aviation authorities in Europe increasingly treat detect and avoid capability as an essential condition for scaling this type of flight safely. Not as an optional technical extra.
What this means for the client
A working detect and avoid system is one of the concrete technical reasons we can offer civil liability insurance with a minimum cover of EUR 5 million per incident.
It is a commitment built on a real technical architecture, not just a line in a contract.