BCN Drone Center Secures Spain's First SAIL III Authorization for Urban BVLOS Deliveries

Main Story

Spain's aviation safety regulator, AESA (Agencia Estatal de Seguridad Aérea), has issued the country's first operational authorization at SAIL III — the third tier of the Specific Assurance and Integrity Level scale — to CATUAV, the registered UAS operator behind BCN Drone Center. The clearance permits beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) transport and delivery of non-hazardous goods over populated urban environments, a combination of operational factors that places it at the higher end of complexity currently permitted within Europe's Specific category under EU Regulation 2019/947.

The authorization is platform-specific: it is issued to CATUAV and directly linked to the RigiTech Eiger 3, a VTOL fixed-wing hybrid manufactured in Switzerland. Three parties drove the process: AESA applied EASA's new SAIL III Means of Compliance alongside the SORA 2.5 methodology and guidance material developed jointly with industry; RigiTech provided the aircraft-specific technical basis required for the approval; and CATUAV led the operational implementation. The process took close to a year from inception to authorization.

The significance of the SAIL III designation lies in what it unlocks operationally. Under SAIL II — the level at which the vast majority of European Specific category approvals currently sit — BVLOS operations are generally constrained to areas of up to approximately 500 people per square kilometre. SAIL III extends that ceiling to population densities of up to 5,000 inhabitants per square kilometre, making genuine urban-environment routing viable for the first time under this framework.

Beyond AESA's domestic milestone, the authorization is among the first granted anywhere in Europe under the SAIL III / SORA 2.5 framework, placing Spain at the frontier of high-complexity civil UAS regulation on the continent. One of the first operational applications is expected in southern Catalonia, where medical-delivery use cases are being developed with healthcare stakeholders to support more efficient and connected healthcare logistics networks.

For CATUAV and BCN Drone Center, the authorization adds a regulatory credential to an already substantial track record. The organization, managed by CATUAV — founded in 2000 and one of Europe's earliest civilian drone companies — had previously secured Spain's first LUC (Light UAS Operator Certificate) from AESA, and has operated a test facility at Moià, Barcelona, with 5,000 acres of segregated airspace and a 4,500-foot AMSL ceiling for over a decade.

Switzerland-based RigiTech has been pursuing SAIL III certification as a deliberate product strategy. The company's regulatory team has contributed to EUROCAE and JARUS working groups on guidance material that balances aviation safety requirements against the practical needs of drone logistics. RigiTech has previously framed SAIL III as the unlock needed to connect denser urban environments that were operationally off-limits at lower SAIL levels.

Technical Breakdown

Platform: RigiTech Eiger 3

UAV Class / Configuration: VTOL fixed-wing hybrid — vertical takeoff and landing via quadrotor motors on twin booms, transitioning to pusher-propeller fixed-wing cruise for range efficiency. Fully electric. No runway infrastructure required.

Maximum Payload: 3 kg (approximately 6.6 lbs)

Cargo Volume: 15 litres

Range: Up to 100 km (62 miles) per mission on a single charge

Endurance: Up to approximately 59 minutes, mission-profile dependent

Cruise Speed: 100–120 km/h

Wind Tolerance: Up to 15 m/s (54 km/h)

Day/Night Capability: Both; equipped with navigation lights for night operations

Sensors / Avionics: Dual camera system (front-facing for fixed-wing flight monitoring; downward-facing for takeoff and landing monitoring); ADS-B IN receiver; FLARM traffic awareness; Remote ID; vision-based precision landing package using sensor fusion of vision, GNSS and IMU data

Safety Systems: Failsafe+ parachute system (pyrotechnic rapid deployment); backup computer for emergency parachute triggering; "quadchute" mode enabling automatic transition to helicopter/multirotor flight in the event of fixed-wing configuration failure; Detect and Avoid (DAA) system with multi-band traffic awareness

Propulsion: All-electric; fixed-wing pusher propeller + four VTOL motors

Autonomy Level: High — designed for autonomous execution of delivery routes under remote supervision via RigiCloud, RigiTech's proprietary cloud-based fleet management and mission operations platform, which integrates live telemetry, live traffic data, route scheduling and fleet maintenance

Authorized Cargo Scope: Non-hazardous goods only (as defined under AESA's operational authorization)

Regulatory Basis: SAIL III under SORA 2.5 methodology; EU Regulation 2019/947 Specific category; EASA SAIL III Means of Compliance

Industry Impact

For Operators: The CATUAV/AESA approval establishes the first concrete procedural precedent for SAIL III authorizations in Spain under SORA 2.5. Operators seeking comparable clearances now have a documented pathway — and a demonstrable proof point — that the combined risk case of BVLOS + populated overfly + cargo transport can be accepted by a European NAA. The authorization does not constitute blanket liberalization; each operation in the Specific category must demonstrate individually that its risks are mitigated in accordance with the applicable framework, including route, altitude, C2 link management, contingency procedures and personnel qualifications.

For Manufacturers: The platform-specific linkage of the authorization to the Eiger 3 is notable. The RigiTech approach — of building SAIL III technical compliance into the aircraft's design documentation and actively supporting NAA review — positions the Eiger 3 as one of the few delivery platforms in Europe with a confirmed SAIL III operational authorization in hand rather than in progress. This creates a product differentiation signal in a market where most competing VTOL logistics platforms are still operating under SAIL II constraints.

For Healthcare and Logistics Integrators: The authorization directly enables medical logistics use cases that were previously inoperable in urban corridors. With SAIL III permitting flights over densities up to 5,000 people/km², hospital-to-hospital or lab-to-clinic routing through semi-urban Catalan geography becomes operationally viable. The planned southern Catalonia medical delivery corridor represents the first concrete deployment scope, and the framework it establishes — connecting healthcare facilities across populated regions — is a template replicable across European markets.

For Regulators: AESA's co-development of guidance material with industry, which formed part of the SAIL III approval basis, is a signal of maturing NAA practice. Across Europe, national aviation authorities are gradually authorizing BVLOS flights, drone-in-a-box deployments and cargo transport missions based on SORA risk assessments. Spain joining this cohort at SAIL III — rather than the more common SAIL II ceiling — adds a data point to the European regulatory learning curve and may accelerate peer NAAs in publishing their own SAIL III Means of Compliance.

For Investors: The Spanish SAIL III clearance is commercially material for RigiTech, which has framed SAIL III as the product-market enabler for denser urban route networks. The company has separately announced that SAIL III-enabled Eiger drone reservations are open, and recently expanded its commercial footprint through distribution partnerships in North American markets. For investors tracking the drone logistics sector, Spain's authorization is a leading indicator that the European regulatory environment for higher-complexity delivery operations is transitioning from experimental to operational.