Tag: Federal Aviation Administration

From “We don’t need it” to “We can’t live without it”

The Air Force was initially opposed to GPS. How did that change?

Between 1978 and at least the mid-1980s, maybe even the late 1980s, the Air Force tried several times to cancel the program. At the time, I was a Capitol Hill staffer for the House Intelligence Committee. In one of those efforts to cancel GPS, Tom Cooper, who was a lead staffer for the House Armed Services Committee, came to me and said, “Can you guys give any reason for keeping GPS?” And I said, “Yes, it greatly improves the accuracy of SIGINT [signals intelligence] locations. It makes a very big difference.”

So, Tom used that, along with other arguments, for why we should keep GPS. The Committee and Congress ultimately decided they would, despite the Air Force’s resistance.

The Air Force’s resistance came from the Strategic Air Command, which in the 1980s believed it would never use satellites. They were concerned about the satellites being shot down. I found this amusing because they were flying around in aircraft at a few thousand feet and were concerned about satellites flying at 11,000 miles. But they were, so they were laggards.

Image: USAF/Staff Sgt. Kyle Johnson

Which service adopted GPS first and why?

The service that by far led the way was the Army. It spent $100 million a year absorbing NRO capabilities. They also spent money on GPS, though not as much. By the time we got to the first Gulf War, in 1991, we had a partial GPS constellation — I think of 18 satellites of the 24 required — and that meant that you didn’t have 100% coverage all day long. So, coverage maps of their areas of interest were generated every day to let people in the field know when they would have service. Most of them didn’t have receivers either. Most of the receivers they did have were Precision Lightweight GPS Receivers (PLGR), knows as “pluggers”, which were the first “handheld” receivers, but they were pretty big.

Once the fight got going, many of the troops wrote home and asked their moms and dads to send them civilian receivers.

Yes! Thousands and thousands of them showed up in theater. Some troops taped them to the windscreens of their helicopters or jet aircraft. They were just jury-rigged into everything because, despite their limitations at the time, they were very, very useful, unlike anything else. So, now everybody realized, “Oh my goodness, this is really a big deal. This is a game changer!”

Then we got more modern receivers, integrated receivers, the whole thing. However, at the end of the Gulf War, the Air Force still had no plan to equip any of its aircraft with GPS. As Assistant Secretary of the Air Force, I was called over to the Armed Services Committee and asked, “What is your plan for integrating GPS receivers into your aircraft fleet?” I said, “There is no plan.” and they were incredulous. They looked at me like “Well, you’re an idiot.”

It wasn’t me, however, and the staff knew my story before I gave it. As a result, Congress mandated it. They put it in that year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Within less than 10 years you had Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and other GPS-guided weapons. So, that got it moving quickly.

By the end of the 1990s, the Air Force was fully on board and were equipping their aircraft with many weapons that depended on GPS. Meanwhile, GPS had moved to a full constellation of 24 satellites. Full operating capability was declared in 1995. The Navy proceeded similarly, but they were somewhat less affected. So, the Army remained a leader in using space.

The Chief of Staff of the Air Force asked me about Air Force use of GPS. I said, “Chief, the Air Force builds a lot of space stuff, but it doesn’t use it.” Of course, a short time later it was using it extensively. So, this ramp-up was very rapid — just a few years from “I don’t give a darn about these things” to “I can’t live without them.”

Brad Parkinson and his successors as JPO directors designed and built the system but had no role in its adoption, right?

No. They were going turn it over to the production house, if you will, and they did. Once the Air Force got on board with GPS guided weapons, adoption proceeded rapidly.

What about the Navy?

I don’t recall the Navy particularly. I do not at all accuse them of being laggards. I think they did what they needed, whatever that was.

Did later NDAAs expand that mandate to the other services?

I don’t know. I was out of the government by that time, so I lost track. I don’t think it was necessary. What people didn’t understand immediately was that you could do anything with this system. At the end of the day, it is a super accurate timing signal. There are many things you could do with that and people have done them. It quickly became evident that it was so pervasively useful, that anything you could think of involves GPS, from the era of the first Gulf War onward. By 10 years later, many weapons systems in all the services were GPS-guided. I later served on the board of ATK and we were building GPS-guided artillery rounds. I am pretty sure that the ATACMS [Army Tactical Missile System] you hear about today is GPS guided.

So, in a couple of years, all the services wanted to integrate GPS in all their platforms and weapons.

Well, except that the amazing thing was, despite all the things that people had done with GPS in the Gulf War — starting with those helicopters that went in the first night and took out the command and control system, which were guided by Army-provided pluggers taped onto the windscreens by their pilots, and downed pilots using GPS to give their coordinates to the rescue teams — at the end of the war the Air Force still didn’t have a plan to put them on its aircraft! That’s when Congress mandated it. It was amazing.

Despite that, once they got going, particularly once they got going with GPS-guided weapons, everything changed. I don’t know whether the Air Force became leaders, but they were certainly aggressive integrators of the program into the service. There was no more, “We won’t use satellites” and all that.

That was after my time. I left government in early 1993. There were other big fish to fry at the same time. As important as I realized it was, I still didn’t realize how important it was, and I was way ahead of most everybody else, in the Air Force anyway.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) chief scientist at the time said, “The great thing about GPS is that it is a tool around which you can build myriad capabilities.” He outlined a few for the FAA, many of which they have since done. The same thing began to happen in the services, particularly in the Air Force, in which GPS-guided weapons were pervasive within 10 years.

Part of Brad’s motto for JPO was “The mission of this program office is, number one, to drop five bombs in the same hole.”

Yeah. By the way, one mistake that people make a lot is they think there were GPS-guided weapons during the first Gulf War. That was not the case. There were none by then. There were precision guided munitions that were guided by maps and lasers and a variety of means. But, despite the belief of many authors, there were no GPS-guided weapons at that time.

So, which was the first conflict in which GPS was used?

It was the Iraq War, in 2003. It was a major user of GPS-guided weapons.

Any other thoughts on the 50th anniversary from the military side of things?

It is impossible to overemphasize the importance to military operations and, frankly, to civilian life as well, of being able to easily and accurately navigate or have highly accurate time.
You can do it with a $100 receiver, whereas it used to require a $10,000 receiver and you had to have it re-initialized from a standard. So that’s what everybody does. Now, this has created probably more dependency than is healthy and many nations have backup that we don’t have.

Such as Loran-C. That’s a big subject of debate these days, as you know.

Well, it’s been a subject of debate for 20 years. Everybody agrees, but nobody moves.

The Department of Transportation recently released an action plan on the adoption of complementary PNT systems. So, there’s some movement.

As a one-time government bureaucrat, what you do when people are on your back is launch a study and say, “Well, it will be done in a year or two.” They have done this time, after time, after time.

There was the Volpe study more than 20 years ago.

Exactly.

December 4, 2023
Percepto granted FAA approval for fully autonomous fleet inspections

Image: Percepto

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted Percepto a nationwide waiver to operate a full fleet of its UAVs remotely by one operator.

Prior to the approval, Percepto UAVs required one pilot per UAV. Now, users can operate up to 30 drone-in-a-box systems simultaneously with one pilot. The waiver aims to improve the capabilities of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) UAV operations across the U.S. By utilizing remote pre-flight checks and advanced automation, this waiver eliminates the need for human interference or expensive radars.

According to the company, the approval is the final regulatory step to achieve large-scale remote UAV operations, following the recent approval for nationwide BVLOS operations.

Percepto’s drone-in-a-box systems consist of a UAV that operates out of a docking station, often used in remote or hard-to-access locations. When set up with a power source and internet connection, the docking station charges and autonomously operates the UAV, allowing operations to run 24/7 and reducing reliance on human presence or interference.

November 28, 2023
FAA panel calls for ‘urgent action’ after near-misses at US airports

Image: mura4art/ iStock / Getty Images Plus/ Getty Images

An expert safety review team assembled by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) addressed several near-misses at U.S. airports in recent months. The group has called for “urgent action” to be taken to maintain airline safety.

The National Airspace System Safety Review Team released a 52-page report on Nov. 15, which cited air traffic control staffing shortages, technology issues and funding needs as the suspected reasons for the incidents.

The review team, which includes former FAA executives, a former National Transportation Safety Board chairman and former aviation union leaders, was established in April 2023. The group was tasked with examining the air traffic control system and delivering recommendations on how to enhance safety, according to the FAA.

Additionally, the report said that past investments in overhauling FAA technology have worsened the agency’s technology. Newer systems are being layered on top of older systems, and few of the old systems have been decommissioned or replaced, according to the report.

The old systems are becoming difficult to maintain because companies have gone out of business, spare parts are no longer available and the older workers who installed the technologies are retiring without passing knowledge onto younger employees. The equipment replacement backlog is $5.3 billion.

The panel also called for significant changes to the way air traffic controllers are trained. The report said using upgraded simulators and removing “unnecessary and outdated curriculum” could lead to faster certification and more employees.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the FAA is 3,000 controllers short of its goal, and according to the union representing controllers, the ranks grew by only 6% in the past year. If the current hiring plan is followed, only 200 empty seats would be filled, the report said.

The understaffing is causing controllers to work significant amounts of overtime, which the report said is causing “absenteeism, lower productivity and fatigue.”

The report comes as the National Transportation Safety Board is conducting separate investigations into several of the near collisions, one involving a near collision in Boston and a collision involving two private jets in Houston. The near misses have since caught the attention of Congress. A Senate subcommittee held a hearing on Nov. 9, where Jennifer L. Homendy, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, stressed the importance of safety checks to maintain airline safety.

November 21, 2023
SwissDrones granted FAA approval for BVLOS UAV operations

Image: SwissDrones

SwissDrones, a global manufacturer and operator of long-range uncrewed helicopter systems for inspection, surveillance and public safety applications, has announced its SDO 50 V2 multi-mission, single-turbine uncrewed helicopter system has received Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) authorization.

This authorization allows aerial service provider Phoenix Air Unmanned (PAU), partner of SwissDrones, to operate the SDO 50 V2 beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) across the U.S. This achievement marks the first-of-its-kind authorization within the United States, allowing PAU to broaden its capabilities in inspection, patrol and survey missions over extensive distances.

SwissDrones and PAU collaborated over the course of three years to build a concept of safe BVLOS operations (CONOPS) and conducted numerous flight trials in the U.S. using the SDO 50 V2. All regulatory and safety requirements were met in cooperation with the FAA to enable extended-range inspection and patrol flights over linear infrastructure under the same regulations as traditional-crewed aircraft.

PAU intends to use this aircraft for a variety of data-gathering tasks, including high-resolution imaging, lidar data collection and thermal imaging.

Depending on the specific sensor package and operating area, PUA inspection flights can span distances of more than 60 miles, allowing operators to conduct multiple inspections efficiently within a single flight.

With a maximum weight of 191 pounds, the SDO 50 V2 can carry sensors weighing between 30 and 70 pounds and maintain flights lasting over three hours. These extended flights make it ideal for missions requiring multiple sensors, offering nearly ten times the endurance and three times the lift capacity compared to aircraft weighing under 55 pounds that operate under Part 107 waivers.

The SDO 50 V2 has also received a Special Airworthiness Certificate (SAC-EC) from the FAA. SwissDrones is among the first organizations to obtain a European drone operator license, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Light UAS Operator Certificate (LUC). This certificate grants SwissDrones the authority to self-authorize flight operations for its aircraft across EASA countries, encompassing BVLOS operations within the specified certificate limits. Additional regulatory approvals from civil aviation authorities will be announced in the coming months.

November 6, 2023
First fix: Overlapping technologies
Image: lakshmiprasad S/iStock / Getty Images Plus/Getty Images

The natural sciences overlap — hence such fields as geophysics, astrobiology and biochemistry. So do the social sciences and humanities — hence such fields as political economy, political philosophy and social economics. Our very individual identities consist of multiple, intersecting factors — including gender, race, ethnicity, class, and sexuality.

Analogously, this magazine covers overlapping technologies. While we focus on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and other positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies such as inertial systems, these technologies are often embedded in larger systems that also include sensors (such as lidar, radar and cameras) and, increasingly, artificial intelligence (AI).

That is why we so often cover unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) — which use GNSS for positioning navigation, geofencing and stabilization; use sensors to collect data; and will soon use AI for mission planning and execution — and autonomous vehicles — which use GNSS and sensors for positioning and navigation and already use AI to make driving decisions in complex environments.

Of course, UAVs are also much in the news these days:
- Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both sides have been using several hundred UAVs every day. According to the Royal United Services Institute, a British think tank, the Ukrainians are losing some 10,000 UAVs a month on the battlefield. (By way of comparison, the French army currently has a little more than 3,000 UAVs in its arsenal.)
- In the United States, the number of companies granted waivers by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations keeps growing, enabling them to conduct much more efficient monitoring, inspections and mapping of infrastructure.
- Following a recent increase in encounters between swimmers and sharks along beaches on Long Island, New York, in July UAVs began sweeping the ocean three times a day to detect danger. On July 14, the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, announced the allocation of $1 million to purchase 60 new shark-monitoring UAVs.
- Also in July, 350 UAVs were lost during a practice light display show in Melbourne, Australia, ahead of a scheduled performance for the opening of the women’s World Cup. The UAVs appeared to stop mid-show and plummet into the Yarra River, most likely due to interference with GPS signals.
- On August 30, researchers in Switzerland unveiled a small AI-powered quadcopter UAV that can outfly some of the best human competitors in the world. It whipped its way around an indoor racecourse in a matter of seconds and was able to beat its human rival in 15 out of 25 races, according to the journal Nature.
From mapping coastal areas with airborne lidar bathymetry to delivering medicines, from locating lost hikers to mapping fires, from enhancing the situational awareness of first responders to monitoring invasive plant species, UAVs are quickly becoming ubiquitous and essential.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, where autonomous vehicles are already ubiquitous, but not everyone considers them essential, an anonymous group of protesters is surreptitiously placing orange traffic cones on some of them, confusing their sensors and rendering them inoperable.

Matteo Luccio | Editor-in-Chief
[email protected]
October 12, 2023

Surveying on a busy runway

NV5 Geospatial, a large geospatial data company, provides services for airport projects across the United States and U.S. territories — mainly supporting airport planning and engineering firms that must meet FAA survey and mapping requirements for data collection at airports. “We generally are a sub-consultant to them, helping them achieve those survey standards for collecting the data and submitting it to the FAA,” said David Grigg, the company’s Aviation Program Director. Typically, this is around planning projects such as airport layout plans and master plans, but also engineering projects such as runway extensions and runway reconstructions.

As an example, Grigg cited the extension of a runway, which requires new flight procedures to be established. “Two survey missions are required for runway extensions. The primary mission is to establish control for the aerial imagery. Using the imagery, control and design data, we check for obstacles photogrammetrically. That data is sent to the FAA and procedures are developed. After construction is complete, we go back to the airport to survey the changed runway and navigational aids (NAVAIDS) to verify that what was designed was ultimately built.”

Another way in which NV5 Geospatial supports airport clients is by conducting obstruction studies around them for vegetation management. “That’s generally where we pull in the lidar surveys,” said Grigg. The FAA’s standards for relative and absolute positioning accuracy for trees are “rather generous” by surveying standards, he said. “We’re talking two to three feet vertically and twenty feet horizontally. It’s not like a typical mapping job where you’re guaranteeing it to one foot or better horizontally and half foot or better vertically.”

The FAA, he points out, has published guidance on how lidar may be used. “We mostly use aerial photogrammetry to support projects in the FAA’s airports GIS program. When we collect lidar at an airport, we do it to generate contours and to identify individual tree canopies. Our lidar-derived data is most often developed to benefit airports for tree mitigation not for FAA airports GIS survey projects.”

On the other hand, the FAA has strict requirements regarding metadata to document when, where, and how each control point is collected. “At the time of the survey, photographs are taken of the GPS units from different angles and cardinal directions,” Grigg said. “This is visual documentation for NGS that the surveyed point is at the location described. ”

Another challenge for surveyors working at airports is that they are required to pull back for incoming aircraft. “Obviously, you will have some logistical issues at busy airports,” said Grigg. Surveyors are required to have special lights and markings on any vehicles that enter the airport property to ensure ground and air visibility. Aircraft movement also impacts surveyors as they must move away from the runway safety area (RSA) for take-offs and landings. Busier airports are surveyed at night, when air traffic is reduced or runways are closed.

A typical project for a small airport takes about nine months, while for bigger airports — such as Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth, or Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta — they can take up to twice as long. “The large hubs update their master plan on a more reoccurring basis, such as every three to five years,” said Doug Fuller, NV5 Geospatial’s Airport Solutions Specialist. “As the airports get smaller, you start stretching out that timeframe.”

Airport survey requirements

[The following was written by NV5 Geospatial and only lightly edited by GPS World.]

Airports have surveys conducted for many different reasons. However, all survey types require the collection, classification and reporting of accurate data about the project. The methodology selected to gather the information is up to the professional surveyor’s judgment. Some features require observation through ground field methods, while others lend themselves to collection via remote sensing technologies.

All surveys start with a search for existing airport control, which are called Primary Airport Control Points (PACS) and Secondary Airport Control Points (SACS). These are points on the airport that have been adjusted by the National Geodetic Survey (NGS). This ensures that the survey is done on the National Spatial Reference System (NSRS).

A typical survey includes surveying the runway, the end points, any displaced thresholds, and a profile along the centerline of the runway. If the centerline marker is not in the correct location or if it is not there at all, the surveyor will make the necessary measurements to establish the proper location and set a new marker. Next the surveyor must locate all NAVAIDS and survey them at the proper location as described in FAA Advisory Circular 150/5300-18B.

After the NAVAIDS are located, the photo control survey will be done. This still requires the PACS and SACS to be the points of origin of the survey. The base requirement as described in FAA Advisory Circular 150/5300-16C is to survey ten photo control points and five check points. The check points are sent to NGS’s Online Positioning User Service (OPUS). This is used to check that the survey was done on the NSRS and that the compilation meets FAA standards.

The standards the surveyor must meet vary depending on the equipment type or photo control point. Examples of the accuracy requirements for the NAVAIDS are as follows:

Point	Horizontal	Vertical
Distance measuring equipment	+/- 1 ft	+/- 1 ft
Glideslope	+/- 1 ft	+/- 0.25 ft
Inner marker	+/- 10 ft	+/- 20 ft
Localizer	+/- 1 ft	+/- 0.25 ft
Runway end point	+/- 1 f ft	+/- 0.25 ft
Runway profile points	+/- 1 f ft	+/- 0.25 ft
Photo control	+/- 1 ft	+/- 1 ft

PACS and SACS

Ellip.

Inverse from PACS to SACS

surveyed relative to published

0.09 ft

0.15 ft

0.13 ft

When surveying on airport property, the largest challenge is always accessing the runway safety area to locate the runway ends and profiles. At small airports Surveyors must work when the runway is not busy; at airports with FAA control towers when the runway is closed. Frequently this is done overnight. Other challenges include access to the FAA NAVAIDS. Some of them must be turned off to be surveyed and others require survey points on which it is not possible to set an instrument. When we are not able to occupy a point, we collect it by surveying multiple equidistant locations around the NAVAID and averaging them.

NV5 Geospatial surveyors use a combination of real-time (R/T) and post-processing techniques. We also use OPUS with the PACS and SACS and the five check points. Once the PACS and SACS have been determined to be stable, the proper coordinates are applied to them and the R/T points are adjusted using Trimble Business Center (TBC). NV5 Geospatial uses Trimble TRM-R8s and we recently added TRM-R12i receivers to our equipment. We use ground control points to orient the photography and to calibrate the lidar.

October 2, 2023

uAvionix, CAP collaborate to expand low-altitude aircraft data for search and rescue missions

Image: uAvionix

uAvionix has partnered with Civil Air Patrol (CAP) to deploy a DO-260B-compliant, dual-band Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) receiver network to complement Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sensor data with low-altitude aircraft positions in support of CAP’s radar analysis mission.

The ADS-B receiver technology — already in use in Virginia — is designed to shorten the accident-to-rescue time in the National Radar Analysis Team’s search and rescue efforts.

Through the leadership of CAP’s Virginia Wing, members throughout the state have assisted uAvionix in locating suitable receiver sites and supported the installation of small, low-weight FlightStation ADS-B receivers at various airports.

The dual-mode (1090 MHz and 978 MHz) FlightStations receive transponder data from aircraft, which is centrally received and transmitted to the radar team server at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, where it’s combined with FAA sensor data.

The CAP team uses FAA data and advanced technologies in its search and rescue efforts. The team is activated by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center when there is a report of a possible missing aircraft or crash. Once the team is activated, analysis and actionable data can be provided in minutes to an incident commander, instead of the days or hours required before the team’s creation.

The FlightLine roll-out consists of several ATC grade ADS-B receivers with overlapping coverage, allowing for validation of transmitted ADS-B data and pinpoint multilaterated positions. Traditional ADS-B and radar concentrate mostly on airports and higher altitudes in support of air traffic control.

Most other available data sources largely exclude coverage for 978Mhz transponders, typically used by general aviation aircraft. Virginia is the first state in the U.S. to have complete coverage down to 500 ft of altitude. The new ADS-B is rapidly expanding to other CAP wings across the U.S.

“The introduction of ADS-B has resulted in a significant improvement of general aviation safety,” said Christian Ramsey, managing director, uAvionix. “Expanding on the FAA coverage at lower altitude and for UAT [universal access transceiver] transponders typically carried by general aviation will further enhance the tools used in safety of life activities such as CAP’ ‘s emergency services mission.”

The radar analysis team is calling on all CAP Squadrons to volunteer to host and install additional receivers where additional coverage is needed. Young said his team will prioritize areas where existing coverage is weak.

For more information and to register your squadron for a FlightStation unit, click here.

August 31, 2023
FAA issues implementation plan outlining steps to enable AAM
Image: MARHARYTA MARKO/iStock/Getty Images Plus/ Getty Images

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has released an implementation plan outlining the steps it and others will need to take to enable advanced air mobility (AAM) operations safely. The plan, called Innovate28, includes various components and a timeline for their implementation to hopefully be completed by 2028.

This plan serves as a foundation for making entry into service routine and predictable by maximizing the use of existing procedures and infrastructure. It addresses how the agency and partners will certify aircraft and pilots, manage airspace access, ensure pilot training, develop infrastructure, maintain security and engage communities.

The plan also includes a planning guide that can be applied to any site, laying out key integration objectives and sequences.

Among the entities that play a role in this plan include: the FAA; the advanced air mobility industry; labor partners, NASA; United States Department of Homeland Security; United States Department of Energy; power industry; and state, local and tribal communities.

The FAA also is collaborating with stakeholders, including through the United States Department of Transportation’s Advanced Air Mobility Interagency Working Group.

The plan’s highlights include:

Operations
- Pilots will be able to fly the new advanced mobility aircraft to and from multiple locations at the sites, using predetermined flight schedules with pilots aboard.
- Advanced air mobility aircraft likely will operate up to 4,000 feet altitude in urban and metropolitan areas, using existing or modified low altitude visual flight rules (VFR) routes where possible within controlled Class B and C airspace around major airports.
Infrastructure
- Operators, manufacturers, state and local governments, and other stakeholders will be responsible for planning, developing and enabling heliport/vertiport infrastructure.
- Advanced air mobility will initially operate at existing heliports, commercial service airports and general aviation airports. Modifications may be necessary to install charging stations, parking zones and taxiing space.
Power Grid
- The electrical power grid may require upgrades to serve advanced air mobility operations.
- The FAA has an interagency agreement with the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab to determine how aircraft electrification affects a vertiport, heliport or airport’s electrical grid.
Security
- The Department of Homeland Security will determine what type of security is necessary.
- The Transportation Security Administration and FAA are evaluating the need for expanded cybersecurity requirements due to the use of advanced technology and operational protocols.
Environment
- The FAA will consider the environmental impacts of advanced air mobility operations, including factors such as noise, air quality, visual disturbances and disruption to wildlife.
Community Engagement
- The FAA will engage with airports, and local, state, and tribal communities to better understand community concerns about advanced air mobility operations, including noise and mitigations.
- Many other stakeholders, such as advanced air mobility operators and airport and vertiport operators will have important roles in community engagement.
The FAA’s full Innovate28 plan can be found here.
July 24, 2023
Flying cars

The U.S. government has visibly and physically conveyed its interest in getting air taxis into operation, through a visit of 70 people — attached to the newly formed Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Coordination group — to Archer Aviation. The group talked with the executives of the company developing the “Midnight’ air-taxi aircraft and watched a flight test.

The AAM group includes members from leading government agencies concerned with making and keeping this segment of aviation successful, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Department of Transportation (DOT), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Department of Defense (DOD) and other agencies.

AAM group visits Archer Aviation. (Image: Archer Aviation)

Gathering the views of Archer and other electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) developer executives should be an essential part of the AAM group’s information collection task. And while it’s great to see that the interagency group has every intention of promoting the AAM concept of air taxis, it would perhaps be better if the group also had access to representatives of manufacturers, developers, and those with UAS experience. It’s clear that we need to start by spreading the word, but also by including people in the group who have dedicated themselves to bringing these capabilities to market — that may make the process more efficient.

Along the way, it may also help to understand that the processes we have used in the past to get airframes like this into passenger carrying operations might not work well with this new industry. It’s understandable that it should take a lengthy period to assess, verify, qualify and certify such vehicles in the name of safety, but if companies run out of cash and fold in the interim — which is highly likely with this “start-up industry” — then shouldn’t we be looking for a better way to get these guys off the ground?

No one wants safety to be sacrificed, but could there be some way to streamline, speed up, or simplify the process without skipping essential steps — a way to get new technology into use before it’s obsolete, or a lack of start-up money dooms its progress? The forecast for the economy in the near future is in the billions of dollars. So, providing funding to improve the current processes does make sense. DOD has started to put serious effort into speeding up its acquisition process and has empowered the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to find quicker ways to bring commercial technologies into defense.

The processes used to bring new technologies into use are tried and proven, but they are lengthy. In defense, if our opposition can field things quicker than we do, they have an edge in strategy, tactics and a higher probability of winning in battle. These countries are using the same approaches in the commercial world too, and we need to be wary that they may also have a greater chance of winning the “economic war.”

Nevertheless, Archer in California and others such as Joby, also in California, and Liliam in Germany, plod on through varying stages of FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification paths. An example of the effort that a company has been required to put into fulfilling the requirements of a certification agency is that of Lilium, which first applied for its Design Organization Approval (DOA) in 2017, is still churning through the qualification efforts and does not expect approval until 2025. Of course, the answer is “Don’t get on the certification ‘hamster-wheel’ unless you can stand the journey.” However, we do want these systems and vehicles to make it in order to overcome some of the traffic nightmare that we are living through in our major cities and to contribute to the growth in the economy.

Meanwhile, the great hope (even expectation) of the “flying car” is being kept alive by Doroni in Miami with its two seat H1 eVTOL. Having largely burnt through its $3.6 million StartEngine launch money, Doroni is looking for its second round of funding to build more prototypes and join the certification race. However, other single seat eVTOL flying cars have taken the easier route to certify under the FAA Ultralight category.

Doroni H1 prototype. (Image: Doroni)

The H1 has semi-autonomous capability, which Doroni claims will make its eVTOL easy to fly, and allow general sales to any car driver. With air bags, an aerodynamic fuselage — which generates lift — 10 independent propulsion systems (four double prop ducted fans and two forward thrust props), an airframe that can behave as a parachute and “dissipate energy” in case of a crash, and landing gear, the H1 also has multiple independent batteries — all aimed at safety, which will help make it through certification verification. So, if you happen to have the $250,000 proposed sale price and are willing to wait on the completion of FAA certification, you could own your own “flying car.”

Doroni just announced that they have already made 50 test flights within their manufacturing facility along that test and qualification road.

Meanwhile, Ryse Aerotech in Ohio, recently demonstrated a manned test flight of its single seat Recon eVTOL — billed as an aid to farmers, with a top speed around 58 mph, a range of about 25 miles and with the right FAA clearance it could even reach an altitude of 700 ft — an airborne ATV for inspecting crops and the like.

Recon manned test flight in June 2023. (Image: Ryse Aerotech)

The path to market that Ryse has selected, however, should see more vehicles in earlier use than Doroni’s H1. All you may need is a driver’s license to take off in a Recon because it’s qualified as an Ultralight craft — just buy and fly. Beware, you cannot fly anywhere near an airport or after dark. FAA has restrictions on Ultralight craft.

So, progress on the semi-autonomous “flying-car” front and a plea to consider the economic benefits and to look to how to improve the efficiency of the existing certification process — not a request to cut corners, rather a request to speed up the processes and save this start-up industry before it goes broke.

July 19, 2023
Southern Company granted FAA waiver for autonomous BVLOS operations

Southern Company — an energy provider — in partnership with Skydio, has been granted a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conditions-based waiver enabling remote-based, autonomous beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) dock operations across its system.

The BVLOS waiver allows the Southern Company system to conduct remote-based infrastructure monitoring and inspection at plant sites, substations, and other fixed site locations, which enables more efficient inspections, mapping and monitoring.

The Southern Company system will conduct these BVLOS operations using Skydio X2 and Skydio Dock. Skydio’s artificial intelligence technology enables operators to safely inspect infrastructure in close proximity to structures and in complex environments.

The Southern Company system was previously granted a waiver in November 2022, that allowed for advanced BVLOS operations using UAVs to map and inspect stacks, transmission lines and basins at Plant Barry in Bucks, Alabama. This waiver granted the company the ability to conduct recurring inspections of its system’s critical infrastructure.

July 4, 2023
uAvionix receives FCC/FAA approval for C-band BVLOS operations

Image: uAvionix

uAvionix has received Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval, coordinated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to operate its SkyLink C-band command and control (C2) radios for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations at the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Emerging Technology test site.

The radios — operating on aviation-protected C-band frequencies — will be controlled by uAvionix’s SkyLine cloud-based C2 network solution that supports fleet management, network health monitoring, detect and avoid, and roaming between multiple radio networks and ground stations.

According to uAvionix, with the BVLOS Waiver, businesses looking to use aviation-protected C-band and other radio networks for assured control and non-payload communications can now develop, test and implement solutions for business initiatives such as package delivery and medical resupply.

With over 200,000 tribal members and more than 11,000 employees, the Choctaw Nation is the third largest Indian nation in the United States. It is developing an aviation test facility in southeastern Oklahoma that utilizes more than 44,600 acres of remote land it tribally owns to support the innovative research, development, test and evaluation of emerging manned and unmanned aerial system technologies in a safe and low-risk environment.

Interested businesses should contact the Choctaw Nation and uAvionix to support implementation and scaling of uncrewed aerial system operations with multiple C2 links including aviation protected C-band.

June 28, 2023
FAA’s Drone Safety Day is quickly approaching
Credit: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Drone Safety Day (DSD) is returning for its fifth consecutive year on April 29. The annual campaign, designed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), is dedicated to educating the drone community on the importance of flying safely.

The event will highlight the societal, economic, and safety benefits of safe drone operations. DSD will feature in-person, virtual and hybrid events in areas such as education, economics, equity, environment and emergencies.

DSD provides opportunities for businesses, schools and organizations to share how they use drones, as well as kick off new safety initiatives. The 2023 campaign encourages drone pilots and recreational flyers to “Fly RIGHT” by focusing on five safety elements:
- Register your drone
- Interact with others
- Gain knowledge
- Have a safety plan
- TRUST and Train
A full list of events and registration can be found on the FAA website.
April 26, 2023