Google’s quest to introduce small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into low altitude airspace within a “few years” has driven the company to launch an unexpected foray into the avionics market, says Dave Vos, head of the Internet company’s Project Wing.
Two companies – L-3 Aviation Products and FreeFlight – have recently unveiled automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) transceivers for general aviation priced under $2,000, hoping to entice aircraft owners to install the mandated precision-locating equipment.
Google’s unmanned aviation venture now plans to beat that price and produce thousands of ultra-low-cost ADS-B Out transceivers for the manned and unmanned aviation market, Vos said 23 March at the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Summit hosted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
“We think that – and we are going to do this – we will head-down the trajectory of putting into the marketplace really, really low-cost ADS-B solutions,” Vos told the ICAO audience.
Asked in an interview later if that meant beating the $2,000 threshold, Vos indicated that was possible.
“We have to answer the question: What does the market find palatable in order to really transform? And that’s where we’re going,” Vos says. “Think about it: Would you spend $2,000? We have to make it happen.”
Driving Google’s strategy is a fundamental obstacle to its plan of launching a UAS-based drone delivery service in a few years. Google’s unmanned vehicles need to operate in airspace below 500ft that is currently used by tens of thousands of general aviation aircraft. Some of those aircraft owners have been reluctant to spend money to equip their aircraft with an ADS-B Out system.
Google is also looking deeper at software algorithms for traffic collision avoidance systems, says Vos, a former executive at Rockwell Collins. If Google’s vision is realised, the skies above urban centres could be filled without thousands of ADS-B-equipped UAVs. That could overwhelm current pilot displays showing potential collision threats.
“We think there are some good solutions to make it not so cumbersome,” Vos says.
Those efforts are part of Google’s effort to be “respectful” to manned aircraft using the airspace today, he says. As an internet company, Google is used to fixing software bugs after rolling out new products for customers. That culture had to be changed after Vos arrived at Project Wing, he says.
“Really bad things happen if there is a bug and we didn’t figure it out,” Vos says. “We don’t just get to stop and check under the hood when we’re flying things. I’m super, super-excited to say the team at Project Wing has pretty much done a 180 in only about 3-4 months and really has embraced the [aviation] culture.”
Source: Flight Global
“airspace below 500ft that is currently used by tens of thousands of general aviation aircraft”???
It is basically illegal to fly manned aircraft under 500 feet except way out in rural areas, unless you are in the process of landing or taking off. (or doing an airshow!) So if small drones stay under 500 feet and away from airports, it shouldn’t be a problem.
Low-flying helicopters probably have the most to fear from drones . . .
Mr. Montag- Great input. The number of aircraft/rotorcraft operating below 500 ft is incredibly small. We need to quantify this and apply current aviation risk models. Tech like ADS-B will help.
Every take off and landing goes between 0 and 500 agl and with a 200 ft climb gradient per mile an aircraft with people on board is legal within several miles on the airport and below 500.
Having an ADS-B transceiver under $2,000 is nice. But, what we really need is an approved GPS position source that GAA pilots won’t have to take out a 2nd mortgage for.