Company A, a drone company, is operating the platform after developing drone delivery services based..

Company A, a drone company, is operating the platform after developing drone delivery services based on its own technology such as flight optimization design, flight control stabilization, and sensor integration.

Although drones capable of monitoring and reconnaissance have also been developed, commercialization is being delayed because they have not received approval for flight in time. A company official expressed anger, saying, “Does it make sense that we can’t do business because we can’t launch drones even though we have excellent technology?”

Another obstacle to the development of the domestic drone industry is strict regulation. Flight approval is a case in point. Flight approval is an essential procedure for flying drones, but it takes a long time to get approval. The industry argues that the U.S. can quickly obtain approval through private institutions, but Korea does not, which is an obstacle to industrial development.

According to data received from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport on the 10th by Kim Han-kyu, a lawmaker of the Democratic Party of Korea, the number of drone companies that applied for flight approval to the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration surged from 3,127 in 2020 to 11,871 last year. This year, there were 7,441 places in the first eight months of this year. The time required to obtain flight approval was reduced from 1.02 days to 0.75 days during the same period.

Although the period is decreasing, the problem is that the flight approval itself targets drones that have already been reviewed for safety. According to the industry, the approval of the flight will be handed over to the Aviation Administration if approval is possible after the Korea Aviation Safety and Technology Institute receives applications from companies and reviews their safety. However, it often takes more than a month to undergo a safety review. The United States, an advanced drone industry country, takes less than a week.

In the United States, private institutions such as Airspace Link, which has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), quickly approve the flight, but Korea does not have such a private institution. It must be directly reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and local competent agencies.

Regulations are not just flight approval. The industry complains that there are several regulations that are subject to criminal punishment if they do not comply, but the punishment is excessive. According to the Aviation Safety Act, non-business aircraft with a maximum takeoff weight of more than 2 kilograms are subject to reporting, and those who fly without reporting them will be sentenced to up to June or fined up to 5 million won.

Kang Wang-gu, head of the unmanned mobile source technology development project at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said, “Appropriate regulations are needed for the development of the drone industry,” but added, “Regulations that impose fines or imprisonment for non-compliance should be eased.”

[Reporter Lee Hojun]