Drone Law Brief | July-August 2026: India’s BVLOS timeline and US-China drone controls

India’s Civil Aviation Minister has indicated that a refined BVLOS certification framework is expected by the end of 2026, while DGCA’s existing prohibition on unauthorised BVLOS operations remains in force. This edition also covers United States and Chinese drone trade measures, eVTOL certification, counter-UAS rules and 25 developments across 14 jurisdictions.

India

India signals a year-end BVLOS framework as DGCA reiterates the prohibition on unauthorised operations

The Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu, said at a drone industry roundtable in Kurnool on 19 August 2026 that a refined certification framework for BVLOS operations would be in place by the end of 2026. This is a reported policy timeline, not a notified framework. Until a framework is issued, a specific authorisation, approval or exemption remains the only route. DGCA’s notice treats advertising and promotion as part of the prohibition, so a business facilitating or marketing an unauthorised flight may face exposure alongside the operator. Our October 2025 edition reported the Director General describing BVLOS rules as being at an advanced stage of finalisation.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation ('DGCA') issued a public notice on 4 July 2026 stating that no notified framework permits beyond visual line of sight ('BVLOS') operations under the Drone Rules, 2021. DGCA referred to delivery services, autonomous logistics and other long-distance payload flights appearing in media reports and promotional material. The notice states that no person or entity may conduct, advertise, promote or offer BVLOS operations unless specifically authorised, approved or exempted by the competent authority. It also makes two points clear:

• A type certificate is not authorisation to fly BVLOS, and

• DGCA has not permitted any such promotions.

A remote pilot certificate permits its holder to operate only within the applicable operating conditions. A person who conducts an unauthorised BVLOS operation may face penalties, and the relevant approval or certificate may be suspended or cancelled under the Drone Rules, 2021. DGCA states that these consequences also extend to advertising, promoting or offering such operations.

Operators should not advertise or offer BVLOS services unless the proposed operation is covered by a specific authorisation, approval or exemption from the competent authority.

SEBI issues final observations on Garuda Aerospace’s offer document

The Securities and Exchange Board of India ('SEBI') issued its final observations on Garuda Aerospace's offer document on 5 August 2026. This marks a regulatory milestone in the offer process; it is not the completion of the IPO. The company had pre-filed its draft red herring prospectus through the confidential route, which we reported in our March-April 2026 edition.

If the IPO proceeds as intended, Garuda Aerospace would become the third pure-play drone company to list on Indian exchanges, after DroneAcharya in 2022 (against which SEBI had passed an order in November 2025 for financial misrepresentation and mis-utilisation of IPO proceeds, as reported in our December 2025 edition), and IdeaForge in 2023.

Sarla Aviation reports receipt of DGCA Design Organisation Approval

Sarla Aviation reported on 10 August 2026 that it had received a Design Organisation Approval (DOA) from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which the company described as an approval under the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) 21. A DOA concerns the organisation's design-assurance structure, procedures and independent checking systems for the relevant certification programme. The DGCA's Airworthiness Criteria for VTOL Capable Aircraft indicates that a VCA type-certificate applicant should obtain DOA and, for series production, Production Organisation Approval. The company-specific development is presently supported by Sarla Aviation's announcement.

For Sarla, the reported approval would be a material step towards the type certification of its Shunya electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. It is not an aircraft type certificate, an approval for series production, an airworthiness certificate or an operating permission. Investors, customers and counterparties should therefore treat the DOA, type certificate, production approval and operational permissions as separate diligence milestones, and should obtain the approval certificate and any limitations before relying on the development in transaction or deployment documentation.

United States

DoorDash earns Part 135 air carrier certificate and launches in-house drone programme

DoorDash, Inc. on 29 July 2026 announced that its robotics unit, DoorDash Labs, has earned Part 135 air carrier certification from the Federal Aviation Administration ('FAA') and launched an in-house drone delivery programme, DoorDash Air. Part 135 certification is the only route by which a drone may carry another person's property for compensation beyond visual line of sight. DoorDash says it is the eighth operator to hold one.

The certificate follows a five-phase FAA evaluation of airworthiness, maintenance, and safety procedures, and cannot be issued until an environmental assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act is complete. Even with certification, a certificated operator needs airspace authorisation, an exemption or waiver to fly BVLOS, and compliance with state law and with local land use and zoning rules when setting up a delivery hub. Part 135 comes in four types with sharply different ceilings: a Basic certificate caps the holder at five pilots and five aircraft, while a Standard certificate carries no size limit but requires separate authorisation for each type of operation. DoorDash has not said which it holds.

DoorDash is the eighth entrant since the FAA certificated Wing Aviation, LLC in April 2019. It says its aircraft is designed and built in the United States with most components made domestically, a point of increased significance in light of the FCC proposal on foreign-produced drones discussed below. DoorDash has not disclosed the aircraft, launch city or start date.

For anyone modelling a rollout, each hub needs its own environmental assessment and airspace authorisation, so the certificate does not fix when or where deliveries begin.

FCC bureaus seek comment on barring import and marketing of military-grade foreign drones

The FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology on 3 August 2026 sought comments on prohibiting the continued importation and marketing of foreign-produced military-grade unmanned aircraft systems ('UAS') and UAS critical components. The Bureau put all foreign-produced UAS and critical components on the Commission's Covered List on 22 December 2025, which blocked new equipment authorisations but left models authorised before that date free to import and sell. We reported that position in our February 2026 edition. The proposal would end it for equipment the two offices classify as military-grade.

Military-grade is defined through seven categories based on take-off weight and specified capabilities or components: pesticide dispensing, thermal-imaging sensors, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors, UAS docking stations, incorporation of a defence article and swarming capability, including drones built for synchronised light shows. Thermal and LiDAR payloads are also used in ordinary infrastructure inspection, agriculture and survey work. The proposed prohibition would not reach domestically produced hardware, equipment on the Defense Contract Management Agency's Blue UAS Cleared List, imports for federal government use or commercial testing; drones already acquired could continue to be flown.

The comments close on 2 September 2026. If a prohibition is adopted, the two offices propose that importation and marketing stop 180 days after it is published in the Federal Register. Indian manufacturers shipping thermal, LiDAR, spray, or docking products into the United States should test their authorised models against the seven categories before the window closes. For an operator with a thermal or LiDAR fleet, the classification follows from the payload, so a survey or inspection aircraft can fall inside the definition.

D.C. Circuit sends part of DJI's Chinese military company listing back to the district court

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on 14 August 2026 affirmed in part, reversed in part and remanded a ruling upholding the designation of SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. ('DJI') as a Chinese military company. The Secretary of Defense's stated reason for finding that DJI contributes to China's defence industrial base is fully redacted, and the district court had upheld that finding without reviewing the classified version. The designation comes from a list the Secretary publishes annually under Section 1260H of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021. DJI has appeared on the list since October 2022.

DJI challenged its January 2025 listing on four grounds in SZ DJI Technology Co., Ltd. v. United States Department of Defense. The District Court for the District of Columbia rejected all four in September 2025. The Court of Appeals rejected DJI’s due-process, disparate-treatment and evidentiary challenges to three findings, but held that the district court could not uphold the fully redacted finding without reviewing the classified record. It did not decide whether that finding is substantively sound. The case returns to the district court to review the classified material and consider whether DJI's lawyers may have access to it.

DJI remains on the list, and the notice of 10 June 2026 restates the designation with fuller public reasons. Section 805 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 has barred direct Department of Defense contracts with listed entities since 30 June 2026 and extends that bar to their supply chains from 30 June 2027. This is separate from the FCC Covered List, which we covered in our 2025 Wrap and February 2026 editions. Procurement teams buying drones for United States federal work should continue screening against the Federal Register list. Listed suppliers should monitor the remand and any resulting treatment of the classified record.

Federal counter-UAS rule opens certification pathway for State and local agencies

The United States Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice brought the interim final rule, Counter-UAS Authority for State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Law Enforcement and Correctional Agencies, into force on 1 July 2026. The rule was published on 6 July 2026, with comments invited until 4 September 2026, and is already operative. It establishes parallel federal certification pathways under 6 CFR Part 124 and 28 CFR Part 124 for qualifying public agencies to use approved technology to detect, track and warn against threatening unmanned aircraft and, under more stringent conditions, to confiscate, disrupt or disable them.

The authority is accompanied by technology approval, training, federal coordination, privacy, data-retention, audit and air-traffic safeguards. Radio-emitting systems remain subject to applicable Federal Communications Commission equipment-authorisation, licensing and spectrum-coordination requirements, and mitigation actions must generally be reported to the federal authorities within 48 hours. Counter-UAS suppliers will need to align products with the federal authorised-technology process, while eligible agencies will need certification, spectrum approvals and operating procedures before deployment. Private operators, including critical-infrastructure, venue and correctional-facility businesses, receive no independent mitigation authority under the rule; qualifying governmental agencies remain the certificated actors.

United Kingdom

CAA publishes airspace concept of operations for scaling drone flights

The Civil Aviation Authority ('CAA') published its Airspace Architecture Concept of Operations on 30 July 2026. It sets out how drones and other new airspace users could fly routinely alongside crewed aircraft at scale. The CAA notes that most BVLOS operations in the UK run on dedicated airspace arrangements and one-off approvals. Such a system is suitable for testing but will not work for volume BVLOS operations.

The Airspace Architecture describes the operating model, the technical architecture and the scenarios used to develop and test policy, with the aim of enabling routine BVLOS operations through a proportionate approvals process. It will continue to evolve, and it is the baseline from which the CAA is inviting industry to engage as detailed policy development continues. This architecture will build on the Airspace Modernisation Strategy and the BVLOS Roadmap. The CAA says the concept will change as technology and testing move on, so this is a direction of travel rather than a rule.

For UAS operators, the architecture could support faster and more proportionate approval pathways at scale. For air navigation service providers, the traffic-management and information-sharing workstreams will affect how digital services interface with existing air-traffic-management systems.

CAA highlights atypical-air-environment pathway for infrastructure BVLOS operations

On 10 August 2026, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) publicised its existing operational-authorisation pathway for beyond visual line of sight operations in an atypical air environment. The announcement did not create a new statutory exemption: the current CAP3040 policy is dated November 2025, and the supporting UK SORA best-practice guidance is dated May 2026. An atypical air environment is a defined low-level area where proximity to structures or property materially reduces, but does not eliminate, the expected encounter rate with crewed aircraft. An operator may use that reduced encounter rate in a UK Specific Operations Risk Assessment instead of assuming the ordinary background air-risk level.

For recurring power-line, railway, wind-turbine and site-security inspections, the pathway may support authorisation without dedicated segregated airspace or a full detect-and-avoid system, subject to the additional mitigations accepted by the CAA. Each operator must obtain an Operational Authorisation and substantiate the selected geography, encounter assumptions and residual risk. Route pre-notification is required, ordinarily through a Notice to Airmen unless the CAA accepts another approach, and the safety case must address electronic conspicuity, anti-collision lighting, containment measures and local airspace coordination. Infrastructure owners should expect operators to seek site data and cooperation at an early stage of the authorisation process.

CAA consults on mandatory electronic conspicuity below Flight Level 100

The UK Civil Aviation Authority opened a consultation on 14 July 2026 through CAP3268, Electronic Conspicuity Mandate Consultation. Electronic conspicuity equipment broadcasts an aircraft's position and other data so that crewed aircraft, unmanned aircraft and air-traffic services can detect it electronically. The CAA is considering whether to require certain aircraft operating below Flight Level 100 in UK sovereign airspace to carry interoperable equipment. The consultation closes on 22 September 2026.

If adopted, the proposal could expand the compliance market for equipment manufacturers and surveillance-data providers and assist detect-and-avoid systems and routine BVLOS integration. Its coverage, altitude threshold, exemptions, accepted technologies, transition periods and alternative means of compliance remain open.

European Union

EASA issues conflict zone bulletin for the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency ('EASA') issued the CZIB-2026-07 on 14 July 2026. It advises air operators not to fly at any altitude or flight level in the airspace of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, and over the waters of the Gulf of Oman. The information bulletin was earlier issued until 29 July 2026, but its validity was extended to 31 August 2026 with no change to content or recommendations. The bulletin reflects the heightened conflict risk in the region and applies to all categories of aircraft, including unmanned systems. This is a narrower instrument compared to CZIB 2026-03, whose extension we reported in our June 2026 edition.

Germany

Federal prosecutor takes over investigation into explosive-laden drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport

A drone fitted with professional explosives and a detonator was found on the grounds of Leipzig/Halle Airport on the evening of 4 August 2026. The discovery prompted Germany's Federal Public Prosecutor General to take over the investigation from the Dresden Public Prosecutor General's Office on 6 August 2026, citing the special significance of the case. Two offences are suspected: The first is attempted causing an explosion under Section 308(1), read with Sections 22 and 23, of the Strafgesetzbuch (German Criminal Code). The second is dangerous interference with air traffic under Section 315(1) no. 4.

A cargo aircraft aborted its landing because of the incident and collided mid-air with an object, presumably a second drone, in the wider airport area. Press reports, citing security officials, state the drone was found near a parked cargo aircraft of a Ukrainian carrier, and that the cargo aircraft diverted to Hannover with minor damage.

Leipzig/Halle is DHL Aviation's main European air-cargo hub and one of Europe's largest freight airports. The federal takeover places the incident within a level of criminal scrutiny ordinarily associated with offences of special national significance. Unidentified drones at airports and military bases prompted Belgium to announce a national airspace security centre last year, which we covered in our November 2025 edition. Cargo operators and forwarders using German hubs should treat drone incursions, short-notice airspace closures and diversions as part of their operating risk.

Norway

Norway introduces a national regime for public-authority drone operations

Norway's Regulation on Civil State Aviation with Unmanned Aircraft, FOR-2026-01-15-48 (BSL A 8-2), came into force on 15 July 2026. The regulation creates a national safety and operating regime for civil State drone missions, including customs, policing, search and rescue, firefighting, border control and coast-guard functions that fall outside the common European aviation rules. Qualifying operations with aircraft under 25 kilograms may use a declaration route, subject to operator registration, documented procedures, insurance and pilot-competence requirements. Within that route, BVLOS flight is limited to aircraft under 250 grams, no higher than 50 metres above ground level and no farther than 50 metres from the nearest ground point, with a green flashing light. Operations outside the declaration conditions require an individual authorisation and risk assessment from the Civil Aviation Authority of Norway. Existing specific-category authorisations under the former regime remain valid until 15 July 2027.

The regime also permits Norway-registered contractors to perform covered public functions, but a public-sector contract does not by itself convert an ordinary commercial service into State aviation. Operators should establish that the flight forms part of the authority's public-law function and should follow the Norway CAA's official guidance on the declaration and authorisation routes. BVLOS operations outside the narrow sub-250-gram route, aircraft at or above 25 kilograms, swarms and other operations falling outside the declaration conditions will generally require specific authorisation. Any authorisation is national and does not confer operating rights elsewhere in the European market.

Qatar

Qatar publishes a dedicated law regulating unmanned aircraft

The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority ('QCAA') published Law No. 10 of 2026 on the Regulation of Unmanned Aircraft on 20 July 2026. The law assigns QCAA responsibility for regulating unmanned-aircraft operations in coordination with other State authorities. QCAA is to determine the types and categories of aircraft that may operate, issue and renew licences and operational permits, designate operating areas, altitudes, airspace and routes, establish import and export procedures, supervise compliance and set environmental standards.

All technical regulations and instructions under the law are to be issued in Arabic and English and published on the QCAA website. The text of the law is presently available only in Arabic, and the QCAA release does not set out commencement, penalties or transitional arrangements. The operative conditions therefore remain subject to the law’s commencement position and the technical regulations still to be issued.

United Arab Emirates

GCAA supplement adding an eVTOL touchdown area at Al Bateen takes effect

The General Civil Aviation Authority (‘GCAA’) published a supplement for Al Bateen Executive Airport, Abu Dhabi, on 25 June 2026, effective from 6 August 2026 until further notice. The supplement records additional taxiway markings establishing a touchdown and lift-off area (‘TLOF’) for eVTOL aircraft. Helicopter operations previously using the same taxiway have moved to the runway.

Al Bateen is also the airport where Archer Aviation began test flights of its Midnight eVTOL in July 2025 for its planned Abu Dhabi air-taxi service. The reallocation is visible on the charts themselves: a helicopter landing area suspended, and an eVTOL landing area marked on the same taxiway. For eVTOL operators and vertiport developers, the UAE is now publishing eVTOL ground infrastructure through the standard aeronautical information channels used for conventional aviation, and the Al Bateen charts are the working template.

Canada

Canada launches Defence Drone Initiative and opens supplier marketplace

The Government of Canada launched the Defence Drone Initiative on 23 July 2026, led by the Department of National Defence together with the Defence Investment Agency (‘DIA’). It will build a pool of qualified Canadian suppliers of uncrewed and autonomous systems for the Canadian Armed Forces and the Canadian Coast Guard, through a Request for Supply Arrangement (‘RFSA’), opened on CanadaBuys. First-round submissions closed on 14 August 2026. The government anticipates periodic updates so that additional suppliers can qualify over time, and the RFSA provides for further rounds every three months until July 2027, then every six months until July 2031.

The backgrounder names six initial use cases: low-cost tactical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones; uncrewed ground vehicles; uncrewed maritime surface and underwater systems; standardised drone munitions and explosive payloads; low-cost, low-collateral counter-drone interceptors; and deep precision strike systems, on which no acquisition decision has been announced. Start-ups, universities, research organisations, established manufacturers, and Indigenous businesses may apply, and previous defence experience is not necessarily required. Qualification will not guarantee a contract; it allows a supplier to compete for later work, from prototyping and testing through to limited acquisitions and production. The pool is limited to Canadian suppliers, so an overseas manufacturer needs a Canadian entity or partner, and the next quarterly round is the entry point.

Australia

CASA announces new airworthiness pathways for large remotely piloted aircraft

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (‘CASA’) announced on 24 July 2026 that new rules for large remotely piloted aircraft above 150 kg (‘large RPA’) will take effect on 29 September 2026. These aircraft currently require a restricted or experimental certificate of airworthiness. Experimental certificates principally support research, development and testing, while restricted certificates cover only specified operations; neither provides a complete pathway for all continuing commercial operations. From 29 September 2026, CASA will be able to issue any applicable kind of certificate of airworthiness to a large RPA and approve some operations without one. The Part 101 Manual of Standards is to be amended before that date to set the conditions.

For operations without a certificate of airworthiness, the operator must run a risk assessment and hold the necessary CASA approvals. It will need to show that the aircraft's design and construction suit the proposed operation, and that the operation will not adversely affect other airspace users or people on the ground or water. A remotely piloted aircraft operator's certificate is still required either way, and registration, licensing, maintenance, and continuing airworthiness rules continue to apply. CASA states it is still working through other operational requirements. The pathway's commercial value therefore turns on the Manual of Standards amendment, which has not yet been published; large RPA developers should test their certification plans against the amendment when it appears, not against the announcement.

CASA proposes national BVLOS and Remote Pilot Licence examinations

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) opened consultation CD 2613US on 6 August 2026. Its consultation package would allow CASA to set nationally consistent knowledge examinations for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations and the Remote Pilot Licence (RePL), while approved providers would continue to deliver the examinations. If the regulations are made, the BVLOS examination provisions would commence six months after registration and the RePL provisions after 24 months. The consultation closes on 3 September 2026; the proposals are not yet law.

A national examination standard would require training and examination providers to align course content, systems and candidate processes with CASA’s requirements, while operators and candidates would need to plan for the staged transition. Approved providers could charge for delivering the BVLOS examination, and CASA intends to consult separately on RePL cost recovery. The package also contains narrower amendments to NOTAM publication and record keeping, including a proposal to extend the record-keeping enabling provision while leaving the existing record categories unchanged.

Brazil

ANAC closes consultation on noise certification criteria for the EVE-100 eVTOL

Brazil's National Civil Aviation Agency ('ANAC') closed its first consultation on the proposed noise certification criteria for the EVE-100 eVTOL aircraft, currently under development by Eve Soluções de Mobilidade Aérea Urbana Ltda., an Embraer company, on 8 August 2026. Brazil has no general airworthiness or environmental rules for eVTOL aircraft, so ANAC is developing criteria for this aircraft. A second consultation, following Revision 1 of the airworthiness criteria, was scheduled to close on 18 August 2026.

The proposal adapts existing aviation noise rules to the aircraft's lift-plus-cruise configuration and sets out how noise is to be measured across phases of flight. Noise limits decide where an eVTOL can be operated, whether it can be certified, and vertiport planning in dense cities is based on the footprint a regulator will accept.

The revision updates the special-class criteria ANAC first published in October 2024 to align with criteria the FAA has since issued in Advisory Circular 21.17-4. Eve has separately applied to EASA to validate the Brazilian type certificate once issued, so three authorities are engaged with the same aircraft. Greater alignment at the criteria stage may reduce friction in later validation work for cross-border deployment.

China

MOFCOM tightens licensing review for drone exports to the United States

The Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM") issued an Announcement on 5 August 2026, effective from the same day. It was issued under the Export Control Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations on Export Control of Dual-Use Items. Exports to the United States of drones, key components, and related technologies which are on China’s Dual-Use Control List will now face strict, case-by-case reviews and will not qualify for fast-track licensing.

The covered items were already export-controlled for every destination, and now have a differing route for one destination. Chinese law normally offers two faster routes: a general licence, which covers many shipments for up to three years, and an export certificate obtained by simple registration. Both are now closed for US-bound shipments. Each export needs its own single-item licence, issued for one shipment to one named end user. MOFCOM must decide within 45 working days, which can be longer where it verifies the end user or seeks expert views.

The measure formed part of a wider set of MOFCOM countermeasures concerning United States entities. MOFCOM also cited the Federal Communications Commission's Covered List measure against Chinese-made drones, which we covered in our November 2025 and February 2026 editions.

This is MOFCOM's second drone-specific export measure in six weeks. The first targeted Japanese entities, including a named drone maker, and we covered it in our June 2026 edition. The measures now operate in both directions: the United States is considering further restrictions on Chinese drones entering its market, while China has tightened the licensing route for controlled drone technology leaving for the United States.

The burden falls first on Chinese exporters, who must now apply shipment by shipment. Many still depend on Chinese suppliers for parts such as motors, batteries, and radio components. Those parts now move only as fast as licences are granted. Manufacturers with US-bound orders should check each product against the Export Control List of Dual-Use Items, record the end user and end use before committing to delivery dates, and assume licences will take longer than last year. For any company whose products use Chinese-controlled parts, licence lead time is now a supply-chain risk to price into contracts.

Pantuo sues Volkswagen and AVIC GA over alleged trade secret misappropriation

In 2021, Volkswagen engaged the Shanghai-based start-up Pantuo Aviation Technology Service Co., Ltd ("Pantuo") under a contract worth approximately USD 590,000 to conduct a feasibility study for a flying luxury vehicle carrying the Volkswagen badge. Volkswagen separately retained AVIC General Huanan Aircraft Industry Company ("AVIC GA"), a unit of the state-owned defence contractor Aviation Industry Corporation of China, as a consultant. The engagements formed part of Volkswagen's programme to develop a four-passenger electric vertical take-off and landing ("eVTOL") aircraft in China, which ran from 2019 until Volkswagen halted it in June 2024. Reuters published a detailed investigation into the discontinued programme.

Reuters reported that, when Volkswagen moved to terminate the Pantuo contract, Pantuo alleged in arbitration that Volkswagen had passed its design concept to AVIC GA without permission. The arbitrator ruled for Volkswagen in April 2023 and ordered Pantuo to pay more than USD 120,000 in damages and fees. In September 2025, Pantuo filed a USD 30 million suit in Guangdong against both companies.

In June 2026, the Supreme People's Court, China's highest court, dismissed the claim against Volkswagen stating it belonged in arbitration under the contract, while allowing the suit against AVIC GA to proceed. A criminal complaint Pantuo filed in 2021 also led Shanghai police to open an investigation in December 2023; case documents reviewed by Reuters name Volkswagen's project lead rather than the company, as the suspect, who is now under travel restrictions. Pantuo states its complaint has always been directed at Volkswagen and never at any individual. Volkswagen told Reuters the claims against it are "entirely without substance".

The dispute differs from the eVTOL trade-secret litigation in Joby Aero, Inc. v. Archer Aviation Inc., covered in our December 2025 and June 2026 editions. That case concerns allegations between two original equipment manufacturers; Pantuo's claim concerns a Chinese project partner, a foreign principal and a separate consultant.

The reported civil claim and criminal investigation also follow different tracks. The Supreme People's Court allowed the civil claim against AVIC GA to proceed, while the criminal investigation reported by Reuters names an individual rather than Volkswagen as the suspect. The underlying claims remain contested.

Revised Civil Aviation Law brings unmanned aircraft into China's primary aviation statute

China's revised Civil Aviation Law, promulgated through President's Order No. 65 on 27 December 2025, came into force on 1 July 2026. The revised law expressly addresses unmanned aircraft within China's primary civil-aviation legislation. Article 34 requires airworthiness approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for the design, manufacture, import, maintenance and flight of civil unmanned aircraft, except where national rules provide otherwise, and requires manufacturers to assign a unique product identification code. Article 61 requires civil airports to maintain unmanned-aircraft detection and response capability, while Article 225 directs the State to develop low-altitude airspace allocation, regulatory platforms and standards suited to the low-altitude economy.

Manufacturers, importers, maintenance organisations and operators should map each product and activity to the relevant airworthiness approval or exemption and build unique-identification requirements into product and fleet systems. The law's support for the low-altitude economy is enabling policy rather than a permission to operate. Under Article 258, separate State Council or Central Military Commission rules will prevail where they govern unmanned aircraft, and the national air-traffic-management authority will continue to make airspace and flight-management rules.

CAAC converts real-name UAS registration into an ongoing lifecycle obligation

On 1 July 2026, the CAAC brought into force AP-45-01R6, the Procedure for Nationality Registration of Civil Aircraft and Real-Name Registration of Civil Unmanned Aircraft. The procedure requires civil unmanned aircraft used for flight or related activities in China to be registered in the owner's real name, subject to limited exclusions. Manufacturers must first file product-model data and a conformity commitment against the applicable mandatory national standard. Owners, including foreign individuals and entities, must register the aircraft, display or use the issued registration mark and QR code, confirm the information annually, update material changes and deregister the aircraft following a transfer, retirement, scrapping, accident or qualifying export. Aircraft registered before 1 July 2026 must complete their first annual confirmation by 1 July 2027.

Annual confirmation and event-driven updates make registration an aircraft-lifecycle control. Manufacturers and fleet operators will need reliable product identifiers and processes covering transfers, configuration changes, export and end of service. Asset-sale documents should allocate responsibility for deregistration and re-registration, and medium and large unmanned aircraft must carry the prescribed fireproof identification plate.

South Korea

South Korea begins the process for UAM pilot-operation zones

On 12 August 2026, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) began the process for designating urban air mobility pilot-operation zones. The release initiated the designation process; however, it does not designate a zone. Preliminary applications from local governments and public institutions are scheduled for 24 August to 4 September 2026. The process follows MOLIT's July 2026 initial operating framework, which identifies tourism loops, regional links and airport connections as the intended early service models and targets initial pilot services in 2028. Applications must be supported by an operating plan covering vertiports, routes, airspace coordination, safety management and proposed passenger, cargo or tourism services.

The legal basis is the Act on the Promotion of and Support for Utilization of Urban Air Mobility. Article 16 generally disapplies the four listed aviation statutes within the statutory pilot-zone and service-provider framework, except for specified safeguards covering registration, type and airworthiness certification, personnel qualifications, operational safety, air operator certification and related matters. Those safeguards remain applicable unless they are separately relaxed after National Transport Committee deliberation and notice.

The 2028 date is a policy target, and investment or project documentation should use the formal designation, exemption and certification milestones rather than assume commercial service will begin on that date.

New Zealand

Drone operator sentenced for repeated unsafe flights near Napier Airport

On 15 July 2026, the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority reported that a drone operator had been convicted in the Napier District Court for repeated unsafe flights and sentenced to 150 hours of community work. The operator was convicted and discharged for flying in controlled airspace without air-traffic-control authorisation and sentenced for one careless-operation offence and two offences involving unnecessary danger. The flights, conducted in 2023 near Napier Airport, included operations beyond visual line of sight, in or above cloud, at night during fireworks and while a crewed aircraft was landing.