Type Certification

Imagine a car model that has to pass a rigorous battery of crash and safety tests before it is approved for sale to the public, rather than each individual buyer having to personally verify the car is safe. Type certification for drones works on the identical principle, certifying an entire model of drone as meeting defined safety standards, rather than testing each unit separately.

Type certification confirms that a specific drone model meets the design, manufacturing and safety standards required for its intended use, and is generally a prerequisite before that drone model can be authorised for higher risk operations such as BVLOS flight. The certification process examines everything from the aircraft's structural integrity to its ability to reliably detect and avoid obstacles when flying beyond an operator's direct line of sight.

For a drone manufacturer, achieving type certification for a model is a significant commercial milestone, since it directly determines whether that model can be sold into the more lucrative higher value use cases like logistics delivery or long range surveillance, rather than being limited to basic, close range visual line of sight applications.