Airspace: The Final Frontier UAS Seek Out Access by Perfecting Sense and Avoid

摘要

The idea of unmanned aircraft flying safely and routinely in the U.S. National Airspace System with airliners and general aviation planes may reach fruition in coming years, but a variety of challenges must first be overcome. One is development of a fool-proof sense and avoid system for the unmanned vehicle that attains a level of safety equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration's see and avoid regulations for manned aircraft. The system would sense - not see - an approaching airliner, for instance, and direct the unmanned plane to maneuver in a timely fashion, well away from the airliner, while sticking to right of way rules and staying within the confines of the air traffic control corridor to which it has been assigned. That's a pretty tall order. But sense and avoid is at least understood to be one of five categories of issues standing in the way of routine use of the National Airspace System by unmanned aircraft. The others - also challenging but less difficult in terms of technology -are airworthiness, operating standards and procedures, equipage, and pilot qualifications.