‘Unmanned Aircraft’ means any aircraft operating or designed to operate autonomously or to be piloted remotely without a pilot on board;

This definition includes all types of aircraft without a pilot on board, including radiocontrolled flying models (powered fixed wing, helicopters, gliders) whether they have an on-board camera or not.

The Regulations use the term UAS, unmanned aircraft system, to refer to a drone, its system and all the other equipment used to control and operate it, such as the command unit, the possible catapult to launch it and others.

RPAS (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems) is a subcategory of UAS, which includes both RPAS and fully autonomous UAS. Fully autonomous UAS fly completely by themselves without the need for any pilot intervention.

Regulatory reference: paragraph 30 of Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 1139/2018 / Article 2(1) of EU regulation 2019/947 and article 3(3) of EU regulation 2019/945