Panelists at Aviation Week’s NextGen conference identified a proven sense-and-avoid system as the biggest challenge for the coming integration of unmanned aircraft into the national airspace system (NAS).
They outlined the current status and challenges, both rule-making and technological, on the way to the goal: routine integration of UAS in the NAS. FAA has funding now for six test sites; selection will come later this year.
Commercial and military UAS are coming to the NAS as soon as it’s ready to accommodate them, and it is FAA’s NextGen air traffic modernization effort, now entering implementation that will be charged with certifying the unmanned aircraft and making the new rules to handle the proliferation.
The “lost-link” problem of how UAS behave when communications with the ground fail also received a lot of attention from panelists and in audience questions, because the air traffic control problem is more acute when there is no pilot in the aircraft to ensure that flight rules are followed. U.S. Air Force Colonel Juan Narvid, chief of the service’s Aviation Integration Division, says the service has procedures for dealing with lost-link, but more improvements are needed.
There are many complications to integration, and one size will not fit all, says Edgar Waggoner of NASA’s Integrated Systems Research Program. The range of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) includes Global Hawks at 30,000 ft. and smaller aircraft at a few thousand, with weights ranging from one-half pound to 34,000 lb.
Jim Williams of FAA’s UAS Integration Office raised another issue: There is no protected spectrum for secure communication. Government players are collaborating, Narvid says, which is the only way to meet such a complex challenge. “FAA by law is leading the charge on this,” he says, but the Air Force already has a lot of ready technology and procedures. “We’ve got a lot of expertise on this.”
The solution can’t come too soon for the Defense Department. Narvid says the military currently has remotely piloted aircraft flying from 60 locations globally. By 2015, that number will grow to more than 100.
In the meantime, when the services want to fly UAS in the NAS, the restrictions on operations and flight plans are major, plus approval must be sought a month or more in advance.
Source: Aviation Week