UAVs:
A Commercial Future?
For more than
five decades, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has compiled a proven
track record of introducing new technology and aircraft safely into the
National Airspace System (NAS). Most recently, the agency has been working to
ensure the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the NAS. The
FAA's sole mission and authority as it focuses on the integration of unmanned
aircraft systems is safety. Already, the
agency has achieved the first unmanned aircraft systems milestone included in
the 2012 FAA reauthorization – streamlining the process for public agencies to
safely fly UAS in the nation’s airspace. (DeGarmo, 2004)
One of the issues of using the UAVs is how to
integrate them into flying in the National Airspace System, successful
integration of UAVs in civil airspace will require assurances that they can
safely operate within the constructs of a commonly shared aviation system and
environment. As such, UAVs must
demonstrate that they do not pose an undue hazard to other aircraft or persons
on the ground. They must, in short,
provide for an equivalent level of safety to manned aircraft. But defining this equivalency in terms of
requirements is difficult. UAVs operate
differently from manned aircraft. And
because the pilot is no longer at risk in a UAV accident, the question arises
as whether UAV systems can or should be held to the same safety standard as
manned aircraft.
Safety risks are pervasive in the design and operations of any complex
system. UAVs are no exception. Sorting out and defining the numerous
individual safety risk factors and their interrelationships is a difficult task
and one that is beyond the scope of this paper.
Instead, this document seeks to address four high-level safety issues of
particular concern: collision avoidance, system reliability, human factors, and
weather. Collision avoidance is chosen
for its potential to result in catastrophic accidents, while system reliability,
human factors, and weather hazards are existing weak links.
The other issue
is Lack of regulations governing flight safety; pilots have safety concerns that must be addressed by the FAA before UAV
operations should be considered. Some of these are technical and some
regulatory including:
The inability of UAVs to see and avoid manned aircraft;
The inability of UAVs to immediately respond to ATC instructions;
The absence of testing and demonstrations that UAVs can operate safely
in the same airspace as manned aircraft; and the need to certify
UAVs to same level of safety as manned aircraft.
Because of the lack of regulations and standards, the FAA should not
even consider allowing the general operation of UAVs in the NAS until all of
the safety and operational issues are resolved. It is necessary and proper that
the FAA first develop UAV policies, minimum qualifications and standards for
UAV operations.( Cebula,2006).
Sources
Cebula, A. (2006, March 29). Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles in the National Airspace System, Aopa. Retrieved from http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/newsitems/2006/060329uav-testimony.html
Hansman, J. (2005, March). Safety
considerations for operation of unmanned aerial vehicles in the national
airspace system.
DeGarmo
, M. (2004, November). Issues concerning integration of unmanned aerial
vehicles in civil airspace .
Gambold, K. A. (2011, November). UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM ACCESS TO
NATIONAL AIRSPACE. , 1-48.
The lack of regulation around the integration of UAVs in national airspace is a problem as of right now, but UAVs are still not allowed in most of the NAS, so I don’t see it as a pressing issue. The regulations will be written as the safety issues and the technology evolves. We still have two years before the FAA is mandated to integrate them into the airspace, and in those two years there will be many new tests that will evaluate how heavily UAV flights will be integrated.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jake. There is still plenty of time for them to come up
ReplyDeleteWith regulations that will integrate them into airspace. However, I'm sure--like all aspects of aviation--that some regulations will still have to be written in blood...hopefully we can avoid that as much as possible with the integrations.
From some of the research I read what I came to a conclusion on is that not all UAV's will be able to enter the NAS. They will be categorized by size: small, medium and large being that only the medium and large ones can enter. The equipment that the small UAV's will need to receive a signal from transponders is too heavy to hold. One of the main regulations they should focus on is how to make sure UAV's do not interfere with manned aircraft.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the concerns you listed about UAVs. The FAA has released a fact sheet for Unmanned Aircraft Systems that gives specific details on the airspace restrictions for UAVs. It talks about the need for a spotter and a transponder in certain situations in order to maintain a high level a safety. The article can be found at http://www.faa.gov/news/fact_sheets/news_story.cfm?newsId=14153
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