Practice for Application of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Federal Aviation Regulations Part 21 Requirements to Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)

Author(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3112
Author(s):  
Michael Hatfield ◽  
Catherine Cahill ◽  
Peter Webley ◽  
Jessica Garron ◽  
Rebecca Beltran

Over the past decade Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS, aka “drones”) have become pervasive, touching virtually all aspects of our world. While UAS offer great opportunity to better our lives and strengthen economies, at the same time these can significantly disrupt manned flight operations and put our very lives in peril. Balancing the demanding and competing requirements of safely integrating UAS into the United States (US) National Airspace System (NAS) has been a top priority of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for several years. This paper outlines efforts taken by the FAA and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to create the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system as a means to address this capability gap. It highlights the perspectives and experiences gained by the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration (ACUASI) as one of the FAA’s six UAS test sites participating in the NASA-led UTM program. The paper summarizes UAF’s participation in the UTM Technical Capability Level (TCL1-3) campaigns, including flight results, technical capabilities achieved, lessons learned, and continuing challenges regarding the implementation of UTM in the NAS. It also details future efforts needed to enable practical Beyond-Visual-Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) flights for UAS operations in rural Alaska.


2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 540-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Olson ◽  
Christine Labuski

In 2014, the United States Federal Aviation Administration chose six sites at which to conduct research crucial to integrating unmanned aircraft systems into the nation’s airspace. Analyzing data collected from five focus groups that we conducted at one of these test sites, this article centers on the gendered and racialized politics of civilian unmanned aircraft. Civilian drone use remains a relatively unchallenged space for displaying hypermasculinity via technological expertise. Focusing on the topic of surveillance, we argue that a very particular, intersectional perspective – white technomasculinity – profoundly influences how civilian unmanned aircraft are imagined, designed and deployed. While this perspective went unmarked and was taken for granted by most of our focus group participants, our analysis highlights the constructed and contingent nature of white technomasculinity, and we argue that a critical technological consciousness is necessary to prevent these technologies from reinforcing or exacerbating unequal distributions of rights and responsibilities among differently located social actors. We conclude our paper on a cautiously hopeful note, drawing attention to moments in which more distributed, or ‘sousveillant’, uses of civilian UAS appeared possible.


EDIS ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sri Charan Kakarla ◽  
Yiannis Ampatzidis

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance on the appropriate use of Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAV) or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the State of Florida. All research and commercial activities involving the use of UAVs shall be conducted in compliance with applicable federal and state laws, statutes, and regulations. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has jurisdiction over all navigable airspace in the United States. All aircraft, whether manned or unmanned, are subject to FAA rules and regulations and violations carry severe federal penalties. The FAA allows small (under 55 pounds) unmanned aircraft operated solely for hobby and recreational purposes to be flown under the rules and restrictions outlined in Section 336 of the FAA Modernization and Reform act of 2012 (Public Law 11295). Currently, the FAA considers the use of an unmanned aircraft for educational or training purposes to be commercial in nature. Below, we provide step-by-step guidance for operating an UAV for commercial (or research) purpose.


2021 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 1475-1481
Author(s):  
Roberto Rodriguez

HighlightsThe FAA has used two exemptions (17261 and 18009) as precedents for approval of numerous agricultural operations for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS).While many operators have received exemptions, a significant portion have not received an agricultural aircraft operator certificate (AAOC), despite the need for both to operate UAS in agricultural operations.Operators who have both an exemption and an AAOC tend to be clustered in geographic areas, with many states without a single such operator.Abstract. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have seen rapid growth in many industries in the U.S. since the introduction of small UAS regulations (14 CFR § 107). However, adoption of UAS for agricultural aerial application has been limited. Two landmark regulatory exemptions by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have laid the foundation for commercial agricultural aerial application with UAS. Since the initial introduction of these exemptions, the pace of new exemptions for agricultural aerial application with UAS has remained steady. By the end of 2019, 64 operators had received exemptions in which the FAA cited one of the two landmark exemptions as a precedent. This study analyzed these exemptions to determine geographic distribution, aircraft manufacturer, number of employees, and time to operator certification. Results indicate that less than half of operators who received an exemption from the FAA became certified for aerial application. Additionally, certified operators were not evenly distributed throughout the U.S. despite the broader distribution of exemption holders. Two UAS manufacturers dominated the market, with over 80% of exemptions requesting UAS from one or both manufacturers. While regulatory hurdles for agricultural aerial application with UAS have been substantially reduced through the introduction of standardized exemptions, this has not resulted in the anticipated influx of certified operators. There are additional impediments preventing operator certification, including technological limitations of currently available UAS, which need to be addressed to improve the rate of UAS integration into agricultural aerial application. Keywords: Chemical applications, Drone, Precision agriculture, UAS, UAV, Unmanned aerial vehicle, Unmanned aircraft systems.


2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (6) ◽  
pp. 801-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Sergeevich Alyoshin ◽  
Valeriy Leonidovich Sukhanov ◽  
Vladimir Mikhaylovich Shibaev

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