Assessing the Risks of Integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (2018) / Chapter Skim
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3 Current Practices
3 Current Practices
Pages 15-26
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From page 15... ...
For commercial transport aircraft, the default "system design" safety target is currently estimated to be one catastrophic event in 1 billion flight hours, but this safety target is less rigorous (e.g, one catastrophic event in 1 million flight hours) for some general aviation aircraft.
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From page 16... ...
. Such ordinal rankings are subject to a variety of logical inconsistencies, and good risk practice seeks to avoid them.2 Since small-scale UAS differ considerably from larger-scaled manned aircraft in terms of consequences, the empirical history of their performance should inform a risk analysis.
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From page 17... ...
While accidents involving large commercial aircraft do occasionally happen, the rate of occurrence is so low that safety experts no longer focus on corrective actions associated with accidents and incidents. They focus instead on proactive safety initiatives based on analysis of precursors of potential accidents.
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From page 18... ...
As the FAA is assessing risk for UAS, it is important that an appropriate risk culture be established for this form of aviation. As with small manned aircraft, the collision of a UAS with a manned aircraft poses a threat to human life, with the gravest consequences potentially arising from the collision of a UAS with a large commercial transport.
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From page 19... ...
Understanding the level of de minimis risk that the public is likely to accept for small UAS operations, in the context of levels of de minimis risk for other societal activities, would be useful in establishing safety standards for small UAS operations. UAS provide an excellent opportunity for the development of technologies that can be tested and flown in service that can improve safety for manned aviation at a reduced cost.
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From page 20... ...
Finding: "Fear of making a mistake" drives a risk culture at the FAA that is too often overly conservative, particularly with regard to UAS technologies, which do not pose a direct threat to human life in the same way as technologies used in manned aircraft. This overly conservative attitude can take many forms: • FAA risk avoidance behavior is often rewarded even when it is excessively risk averse, and rewarded behavior is repeated behavior.
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From page 21... ...
This culture has led to highly prescriptive FAA guidance for many TABLE 3.2 Details of Certificate of Authorization Information Requirements Proponent Information Vehicle Performance Operational Description Name of sponsor, address, and contact Description of aircraft type, number of Request effective period, approval information certified components, ground station effective period, executive summary, description, climb, cruise, descent operational summary performance Airworthiness Statement Procedures Avionics/Equipment Description FAA-type certificate data for civil Lost link, lost communications, Equipment suffix type, GPS capability aircraft, airworthiness declaration for emergency procedure description and description, description of Traffic public aircraft Collision Avoidance System/Midair Collision Avoidance System, transponder capability Lighting Spectrum Analysis ATC Communications Plan Landing, anticollision, infrared Data and control link description with Two-way voice communication capability spectrum approval documentation description (instantaneous) , guard included frequencies Electronic Surveillance/Detection Aircraft Performance Recording Operational Plan Area Description Capability Flight data recording capability, ground Latitude/longitude description of Onboard aircraft electro-optical/infrared, control station recording, voice recording operational area, flight plan waypoints radar, terrain detection, ground stationATC radar access Flight Crew Qualification Special Issues Other Certification level, medical certification, Self-explanatory, requires supporting DOD or FAA currency documentation NOTE: ATC, air traffic control; DOD, Department of Defense; FAA, Federal Aviation Administration; GPS, Global Positioning System.
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From page 22... ...
" Where the FAA employs internal boards of executives throughout the agency to provide input on decisions, final responsibility and authority and accountability for the decision should rest with the executive overseeing such boards. A time limit should be placed on responses from each member of the board, and any "No" vote should be accompanied with a clearly articulated rationale and suggestion for how that "No" vote could be made a "Yes." At present, unmanned aircraft designed to fly beyond visual line of sight for commercial purposes require a formal airworthiness certification.
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From page 23... ...
is one example of a commercial business that is structured around data collection utilizing a combination of manned and unmanned aircraft when it would be safer and more cost-effective to conduct operations solely with unmanned aircraft. In all likelihood, requirements for additional equipage -- to be compliant with detect-and-avoid and commandand-control standards to operate routinely in the national airspace -- will add to this burden.
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From page 24... ...
Although there may be additional risk associated with operations of larger, higher-performance vehicles, the operations most attractive to industry are normally conducted over very remote locations where the risk of encounters with other aircraft or people not associated with operation is sufficiently low. Unfortunately, the current anecdotal approach to assessing the risk and the associated uncertainties of gaining operational approval make it difficult to establish a sustainable business model.
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From page 25... ...
Researchers hoping to propose non-standard UAS field campaigns have no way of gauging ahead of time whether FAA will accept certain approaches, and the tell-us-what-you-want-to-do-and-we-will-respond process leads to delays and some confusion. Provision of exemptions for very low risk UAS such as DataHawk under Part 101 (i.e., treating the aircraft as posing risk comparable to a weather balloon)
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From page 26... ...
2016. Investigations of Spatial and Temporal Variability of Ocean and Ice Conditions in and Near the Marginal Ice Zone: The "Marginal Ice Zone Observations and Processes Experiment" (MIZOPEX)
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