Impact of Detect and Avoid Maneuvering on Wake Hazard

摘要

Operating unmanned aircraft with the National Airspace System (NAS) requires a means for ensuring that provisions in aviation regulations to "see and avoid" other aircraft and "remain well clear" can be met (U.S. Code of Federal Regulations). The concept of Detect and Avoid (DAA), broadly defined as "the capability of an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) to see, sense or detect conflicting traffic or other hazards and take the appropriate action to comply with the applicable rules of flight" (ICAO, 2011), has been established as that means. Aside from collision hazards with other aircraft, one such "other hazard" could be wake hazards from aircraft that also present a collision hazard. An analysis was conducted to evaluate a representative DAA system, as defined by DO-365, for UAS operating within the national airspace system (RTCA, Inc., 2017), with a focus on determining the need for a DAA system to actively mitigate wake risk. The study examined the likelihood of increased wake vortex hazard due to UAS DAA maneuvering under foreseeable operating conditions. This paper presents the methodology and results of this hazard analysis, and concludes that DAA does not increase risk due to wake encounters.