SafeSky and DJI collaboration: Connecting Uncrewed and Crewed Aviation

15 hours ago
3 min read

A general aviation pilot is on a VFR cross-country, descending through 1,500 feet towards a local aerodrome... Two kilometres ahead, a professional drone operator is conducting a site inspection... Neither can see the other.

Today, that changes!

Drones and manned aircraft have been sharing the same sky for years, largely invisible to one another. A paramotor pilot on a ridge flight, a helicopter on a rescue approach, a glider in the circuit: none of them could see the professional drone operating 500 metres away, and the drone operator could not see them either.

That is the problem this partnership is solving!

SafeSky has spent years building the most comprehensive cooperative traffic network in aviation. With more than 30 traffic sources, this is covering every cooperative aircraft type: commercial, General Aviation, helicopter, glider, ultralight, paramotor, paraglider. With thousands of pilots already connected, it is the richest live traffic picture available to anyone flying in the lower airspace.

Until now, professional drones were largely absent from that picture.

Two worlds, one shared picture

Starting today, SafeSky's Traffic Awareness platform is now integrated directly into DJI FlightHub 2, the professional drone management platform used by the vast majority of enterprise drone operators worldwide.

Drone operators see manned aviation. Manned aviation pilots see cooperative drones. Both sides, at once, in real time. That is a world first at this scale, since DJI Enterprise drones represents more than 70% of the market share.

As a pilot, drones are now on your map in flight

If you already fly with the SafeSky app, Air Navigation Pro, Easy VFR, Gaggle, Aero-Tracker, or any of the 15+ apps and hardware connected to the SafeSky network, you do not need to do anything. No new equipment, no software upgrade, no new subscription.

Cooperative DJI FlightHub 2 drone positions will appear automatically on your traffic display in real time, alongside the rest of the SafeSky traffic picture. When one gets close, you will receive a traffic alert exactly as you would for any other cooperative aircraft.

DJI FlightHub 2 showing up in SafeSky to crewed and uncrewed pilots

DJI FlightHub 2 Drone Alert showing up on SafeSky App

As a drone operator, you are no longer flying blind

If you operate on DJI FlightHub 2 and subscribe to a SafeSky Enterprise Plan, live manned aviation traffic appears directly in your mission control interface when your dock connects. No separate application, no manual cross-check before takeoff and nothing for the rest of the flight: you will see cooperative helicopters, General Aviation aircraft, gliders, paramotors with configurable traffic alerts.

SafeSky also connects operators beyond FlightHub 2. Whether you fly with a different ground control platform or use entirely different hardware, if you are connected to SafeSky, you share the same live traffic picture with every other operator on the network. For the first time, drone operators across different technologies and manufacturers can see each other in flight.

SafeSky traffic integrated in DJI FlightHub 2

In Europe, this directly strengthens your SORA documentation.

Getting a BVLOS authorisation requires demonstrating, for each Air Risk Class in your Area of Operation, that you have the traffic awareness capability to detect and respond to manned aviation. SafeSky gives you a live, multi-source cooperative traffic picture across your ARC levels, with dynamic alerts and the operational records to support your submission to your National Aviation Authority.

It does not replace the assessment itself, and authorisation remains at the discretion of your NAA. But it gives you documented, real-time traffic awareness capability built into your mission control platform, rather than something pieced together separately.

Norwegian Peoples Aid (NPA), Helicus in Belgium or Aviant in Norway use SafeSky as part of their active operations: