UAS in the NAS

One of the great hurdles to unmanned aircraft system (UAS) integration into the national airspace system (NAS) is coordination – both with air traffic control (ATC) and other manned and unmanned aircraft. Safety is always priority, and the successful integration of manned and unmanned systems is dependent on keeping the skies safe regardless of the type of aircraft being flown. One way to ensure this safety is met is to treat unmanned systems as though they were manned. Vice president of the Airline Pilots Association Sean Cassidy stated that UAVs, “…should be certified in the same way manned aircraft are and that pilots should receive equivalent training. (Defense News, 2013).” This shows the mindset of aerospace professionals, and serves as good direction. To that end, UAS should be treated as any other aircraft, and should be equipped with similar technologies that facilitate positive ATC interactions. Transponders and sense-and-avoid capabilities are two technologies that medium to large UAS need in order to function safely with other aircraft. Maintenance should be on par if not greater than manned systems to set high standards and ensure accidents are not directly attributed to poor maintenance practices. This is especially important at the early stages of UAS NAS integration where UAS are already being looked at with concern and being introduced with much resistance from professionals and the general public alike. Every step needs to be taken to ensure an oversight is not to blame, especially during the early stages of integration.

Another area of importance to NAS integration are situational awareness issues. It is the nature of UAS to be lacking in naturally occurring situational awareness aids found in manned pilots, therefore, attempts should be made to mitigate this deficiency through integrated technology and on-board sensory payloads. The goal being to provide ground control stations (GCS) with all the situational awareness possible in an attempt to avoid in air collisions as well as maintain environmental awareness.

Lastly, all UAS need to have an emergency procedure with lost-link controls in place. Lost-link issues can be devastating to equipment and surroundings as is; add in a public setting in NAS and the results are potentially catastrophic. To avoid such scenarios, all UAS need to have multiple layers of safety and technologies to aid in the event of lost-link. Many companies are working toward lost-link technologies and the FAA and MITRE Corporation have come up with one device known as the Intelligent Analyzer. The goal of MITRE and the Intelligent Analyzer is to aid not only the ground pilots but ATC and other pilots in the area surrounding the UAS. The device transmits a message to ATC and pilots through emergency frequencies alerting them of the intent of the aircraft (MITRE, 2012). It is through these types of advancements that UAS will eventually fly safely with manned systems without negatively impacting controller workload and ATC operations.

References:
Defense News (2014). How a Large U.S. Navy UAV Crashed in Maryland, from 18,000 feet
(2013). Retrieved from: http://www.defensenews.com/article/20130107/C4ISR02/301070006/
MITRE Corporation (2014). Unmanned Aircraft System Airspace Integration: Intelligent
Analyzer (2012). Center for Advanced Aviation System Development. Retrieved from: https://www.mitre.org/sites/default/files/publications/Unmanned_Aircraft_System_Airspace_Integration_Intelligent_Analyzer.pdf