Techniques to avoid aircraft collisions took center stage as aviation experts met in Washington this week to continue hammering out the standards essential to integrating unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the nation’s skies. The standards are being developed by RTCA Special Committee 228 (SC-228), one of the family of committees operating through RTCA, Inc., which develops consensus standard for aviation, which are then adopted and put into real-world practice by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Category Archives: Regulatory Matters
NASA Working on UAS Air Traffic Control System
Researchers at NASA are working on ways to manage that menagerie of low-flying aircraft. At NASA’s Moffett Field, about four miles from Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., the agency has been developing a UAS traffic management programme that would in effect be a separate air traffic control system for things that fly low to the ground — around 400 to 500 feet for most drones. Continue reading
China Issues First Airworthiness Certificate for V750
China’s unmanned helicopter, the V750, will receive an airworthiness certificate from Civil Aviation Administration next month. It will be the first such certificate issued by the country to a UAS.
FAA Faces Legal Action on Its Rules for Model Aircraft
On 23 June, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) published its interpretation of the “Special Rule for Model Aircraft,” which disgruntled quite of few people with an interest in flying model planes and helicopters. Many of those upset left critical feedback on the FAA’s website, but last week three groups went further and formally took legal action. Continue reading
Costa Rica Needs UAS Regulations
According to José Duran, Costa Rica’s representative of the Agencia Centroamericana para la Seguridad Aeronáutica (ACSA) – Central American Agency for Aviation Safety – there is an urgent need for the control unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV).
EC Initiative Concerning Civil Use of RPAS
Aviation technologies continue to evolve and to offer ever more opportunities to deliver services to citizens and to contribute to creating jobs and growth. At the same time, the growing use of new technologies deserves public debate and often requires appropriate intervention of the regulator in order to protect essential public interest. This is the case for remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), commonly known as drones. Such unmanned aircraft have the potential to support in the coming years a wide development of civil applications. Continue reading
Amazon UAS in India – Really ?
Dennis Berman of The Wall Street Journal, discusses a report that Amazon will start testing deliver drones in India. Continue reading
First BLOS Flight at Spanish Test Centre
Spain’s Air Traffic Laboratory for Advanced Systems (Atlas) experimental test centre on August 20 hosted the first flight of a remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) beyond visual line of sight since new rules governing RPAS entered force in that country. Pilots with the Centre for Advanced Aerospace Technologies flew the Viewer aircraft, a 33-pound mtow electric airplane, more than 8 km (4.9 miles) from the center’s facilities in Villacarrillo and up to 3,300 feet above sea level.