MQ-9 Unmanned Aircraft Responsiveness to Air Traffic Controller Commanded Maneuvers: Implications for Integration into the National Airspace System

摘要

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) integration into the National Airspace System (NAS) will require overcoming numerous challenges, including evaluating the responsiveness of Unmanned Aircraft (UA) to Air Traffic Control (ATC) commands. Since developing a complete understanding requires a series of investigations, the purpose herein is to provide a foundation for future studies. An MQ-9 UAS simulator was connected to a UFA ATC radar simulator and scripts were flown by Certified Flight Instructor (Instrument) (CFI(D) rated pilots to measure response and maneuver completion times. The MQ-9 was flown in stick-and-rudder mode to emulate manned aircraft (MA) and provides a baseline for future studies. Response and heading-change-maneuver-completion times for the simulated MQ-9 UAS were comparable to those estimated for MA. Use of strict maneuver-completion requirements, however, resulted in a high bias in heading-change-maneuver-completion times. Suggestions for future work are provided.