UAV - Det går mot integrering i kontrollert luftrom, men sakte

Textron Awaits FAA COA for Aerosonde Flight

Textron Systems expects to receive a Certificate of Authorization (COA) from the US Federal Aviation Administration in coming weeks which will allow the firm to operate its AAI Aerosonde unmanned air vehicle (UAV) in unrestricted US airspace.

Under the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, the administration was mandated by Congress to ensure UAVs could be fully integrated into national airspace by 30 September 2015, a task for which six test sites were established.

The Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership (MAAP) site – which covers testing ranges in Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey – was one of those selected, and will soon see Aerosonde UAVs flying near Blackstone, Virginia.

The flights will specifically take place at Fort Pickett – the home of the Aerosonde training centre that prepares US military and civil customers to use the UAV – but in different airspace to that allocated to the training centre.

“We’re in the last stages before gaining the COA,” Stephen Greene, vice-president of business development at Textron told Flightglobal. “For certain this will happen before the end of the year.”

David Phillips, vice-president of small and medium-endurance UAS at AAI – a division of Textron – adds that the UAV and its operators are experienced at flying in contested environments, with the type having been flown by the US military in concert with manned aircraft at Bagram air base and Kandahar airfield in Afghanistan.

“The thing holding us back [in airspace integration] is procedure and process,” Greene adds. “This is very much at the precipice of it going to happen.”

The company is also touting the Aerosonde to potential oil and gas customers that could use the UAV for a variety of surveillance and safety applications.

Four Aerosonde platforms have been purchased by an undisclosed Middle Eastern customer, which recently qualified in training on the system. Textron hopes for more custom in this marketplace as the potential of the UAV is realised.

Monday, October 27, 2014

Australia’s CASA Looks to Define UAS Regulations in Controlled Airspace

Juliet Van Wagenen

Civil UAS in flight. Photo: Wikipedia

[Avionics Today 10-27-2014] Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) will conduct a project to define the standards for enabling Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) operations within a controlled airspace while maintaining appropriate safety margins. The project will also address low-level helicopter operations within controlled airspace and near primary airports.

Regarding UAS, CASA reports that there have been increasing requests from unmanned aircraft operators for permission to conduct flights in controlled airspace, sometimes in close proximity to an airport. The normal separation regulations, according to CASA, either don’t apply to UAS operations or have such large buffer values that UAS flights can’t occur close to an airport without hindering manned aircraft traffic. Without global standards to follow on how UAS should operate in such situations, CASA will review UAS minimal separation regulations, ensure safety is adequately addressed and look to adopt minimal regulatory standards, even if just interim in nature. 

While CASA reported no timeline for the standards, it did address the lack of UAS regulations as “an unresolved global issue,” and is looking to have interim guidelines in place as soon as possible.