The Flight Standards Department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China ("CAAC") has recently issued the Data Specifications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Cloud System (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") to seek comments from the entities concerned by July 10, 2019.
The Draft for Comment sets forth the content and formats of data in the cloud systems on civil unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), and requirements for data transfer between civil UAV cloud systems, data encryption, coding rules, and performance requirements, and applies to cloud systems on civil UAV operated within the territory of China and data interchange and integration between such cloud systems. Among others, the Draft for Comment clearly states that an UAV user or operator shall register an account in the UAV cloud system, and the registration information covers the relevant information necessary for the UAV system's registration of UAV flight services in the UAV cloud system. Meanwhile, the Draft for Comment proposes that UAV cloud systems should be capable of filing applications for planned flights and receiving the examination and approval results and support the function of submitting applications to the data interchange system or to the national UAV integrated regulation platform.