UAS VISION
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Photo - Academy of Model Aeronautics
The Federal Aviation Administration’s plans to regulate unmanned aircraft systems are raising concerns at the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), which employs 57 people at its Muncie, Indiana Headquarters and draws thousands of visitors to the community each year.
US Deputy Defence Secretary William Lynn has launched a review of the Pentagon’s unmanned aircraft programmes to determine whether their requirements to operate in the national airspace are clearly defined and consistent with the department’s new airspace integration plan.
The most intense use of the US Federal Aviation Administration’s NextGen Integration and Evaluation Capability (NIEC) to date has been by the UAS community, both within the FAA and the broader government and industry community.
The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a Certificate of Authorization (COA) to Mississippi State University for Stark Aerospace to fly the Heron UAS from Golden Triangle Regional Airport (GTRA) in Columbus, Mississippi .
Last Friday, the US House of Representatives passed the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011 by a vote of 223 to 196. The bill includes important passages about integrating unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System (civil airspace).
Doug Davis is currently Director, Global UAS Strategic Initiatives at New Mexico State University, after spending almost 25 years with the FAA. He is widely known and respected for his pioneering work in developing the vision for how UAS will operate in the National Airspace System. We asked Doug for his appraisal of the current legislative and budgetary situations facing the FAA and the progress that it is being made. Doug told us:
ICAO has notified UVS International that it would like to continue the partnership established for the organisation of the Global Air Traffic Management Forum, which included ATCA, CANSO, EUROCONTROL, IATA, FAA, Department of Defense (USA), Ministry of Transport (Germany), NATO, and UVS International, for the organisation/conduct of a regional campaign of five seminars/workshops on civil/military cooperation in all ICAO regions from 2011 to 2013.
The University of Newcastle, Australia and Boeing Research and Technology Australia have launched a five-year project to develop a tool to evaluate whether unmanned aircraft meet the same levels of safety as piloted aircraft for particular operations.