One year after the Small UAS Rule (Part 107) took effect lawmakers and commercial drone operators are still learning to share the National Airspace and integrate drones to their fullest potential. AUVSI's advocacy team strives to educate lawmakers about issues important to the drone community and works in conjunction with the FAA to promote safe flying.
This webinar will highlight important aspects of FAA regulations governing commercial drone use and provide insights into how drone operators can affect regulatory change to support the growth of the industry.
Airspace
Airspace
UAS policy expanded in congressional FAA reauthorization bills
Before leaving for the Independence Day recess, congressional committees with oversight of the Federal Aviation Administration approved separate pieces of legislation in the U.S. House and Senate to reauthorize the agency and provide it with funding. The bills included many provisions advocated by AUVSI to expand policy for the operation of unmanned aircraft systems.
AeroVironment’s Wasp AE small UAS selected as a part of AUD $101 Million Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program
AeroVironment’s Wasp AE small UAS has been selected by the Australian Defence Force (ADF), for the AUD $101 Million Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Program.
Weighing just under three pounds, the Wasp AE has a flight time up to 50 minutes, and can operate at a range of up to five kilometers.
Using its pan-tilt-zoom Mantis i22 AE gimbaled payload, the UAS, which is launched by hand, and can land on the ground, or in fresh or salt water, delivers “live, streaming color and infrared video.”
According to AeroVironment, the UAS provides portability and flexibility for operations such as infantry, littoral or maritime reconnaissance.
Navy tests Mine Warfare Rapid Assessment Capability system that uses UAS to detect buried and submerged mines
A recent technology demonstration at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton tested the new Mine Warfare Rapid Assessment Capability (MIW RAC) system, which is a portable, remote-controlled system that uses a UAS to detect buried and submerged mines.
MIW RAC, which is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research’s (ONR) TechSolutions program, includes a tablet device, and a one-pound quadcopter UAS, which is equipped with “an ultra-sensitive magnetometer sensor system,” that allows the UAS to detect mines, and provide real-time search data to a handheld Android device.
Korea to use UAS to monitor prisons and inmates
The Ministry of Justice in Korea has announced that the government plans on using UAS to monitor prisoners at three different penitentiaries starting in July, as a part of a six-month test operation of unmanned aerial systems.
The UAS, which will be able to fly at night, and will be equipped with a camera that can send real time videos, will be used for several tasks, such as patrolling the inside and outside of prisons, monitoring the movements of inmates, and tracing fugitives.
“Use of drones will help raise the efficiency of watching prisoners and save costs in personnel,” says a justice ministry official, via the Korea Times.
NIAS and NASA continue testing of NASA's UAS Traffic Management System
In late May, the Nevada UAS Test Site and its NASA partners used five different UAS to demonstrate several different operational scenarios, including aerial survey operations and parachute initiated emergency supply deliveries.
The UAS were flown as a part of the specific NASA Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM) missions, and thanks to “strategically placed visual observers (VO) and sophisticated Command and control (C2), communication, detect, and avoid technologies,” the UAS were also flown beyond the pilot’s visual line of sight.
Drone Delivery Canada becomes first drone delivery company in Canada to complete BVLOS test flights
After receiving a Special Flight Operating Certificate from Transport Canada, Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has become the first and only “pure play drone delivery company” to successfully complete beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) test flights under the oversight of Transport Canada.
DDC’s Mission Control Centre in Toronto monitored and recorded telemetry for each flight in real time, from 2,500 kilometers away, as the flights took place in Foremost, Alberta.
The main systems tested during the flights were DDC’s proprietary FLYTE management system, its avoidance technology, and communications platform.
Georgia police department receives DJI Phantom 3 Professional UAS from InterDev
As a part of its ongoing program “to thank its municipal clients for engaging InterDev’s to provide IT and/or GIS services,” InterDev, a provider of not only IT and GIS services, but also security services as well, recently donated a DJI Phantom 3 Professional UAS to the Dunwoody police department in Georgia.
According to Dunwoody Police Chief Billy Grogan, the donation will greatly benefit the department’s UAS program, which will positively impact the Dunwoody community in the process.
“The Dunwoody Police Department’s unmanned aerial vehicle program will be enhanced by the generous donation from InterDev of this important technology,” Grogan says.
“It will help our department to continue meeting the service needs of the citizens of Dunwoody.”
Navajo County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona uses UAS to locate missing man
In late May, the Navajo County Sheriff’s Office in Arizona used a UAS to search for a man who went missing in the woods near Clay Springs, Arizona.
It was the first time that the sheriff’s deputies used a UAS during a search and rescue operation.
Deputies requested the help of NCSO’s UAS for the search, and within 45 minutes of arriving on the scene, the UAS pilots located the man, about “a quarter of a mile east and 350 yards north” of where his motorcycle had been found earlier.
The man was described as “disoriented and dehydrated ” when found, but in good health.
SOAR Oregon opening new hangar at Pendleton’s UAS Range
On June 10, a ribbon cutting will be used to officially open a new 9,600 square-foot hangar at Pendleton’s UAS Range (PUR), which is located at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton, Oregon.
The hangar is being opened by SOAR Oregon, which is a statewide nonprofit based in Bend, Oregon that seeks to encourage the growth of the UAS industry in the state.
Vahana, an electric, self-piloted vehicle being developed by A³, which is the advanced projects and partnerships outpost of Airbus in Silicon Valley, will be the first occupant of the new hangar, thanks to a partnership that was struck in November 2016 between Modern Technology Solutions, Inc. (MTSI) and SOAR Oregon.
Through that partnership, the two worked together on a flight test project for Vahana.