Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.
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special report 16 unmanned systems inside Spring 2014 winning and losing teams, said they expect the FAA to prioritize the processing of the six sites' applications for Certificates of Authority (COAs)– the official permission slips operators need to fly. "Yes that's the advantage of these test sites," said Becklund. "It's not that the FAA is going to ignore all the other needs for COAs out there in the United States, it's just that the test sites have priority right now for their internal resources, funding for their people to work on it. It's a big ef- fort, so our COAs are getting expedited services." But there may eventually be more advan- tages to being one of the six. Interviewees said the FAA is also consider- ing site COAs that, if approved, would cover multiple missions and changes to aircraft as long as they fall within certain parameters. "The biggest issue is that the current COAs, besides being geographically specific to air- space, they're also vehicle specific. So you have to get a new COA every time you want to fly a new vehicle, or even modify substantially a vehi- cle," said Matt Scassero, director of the Univer- sity of Maryland UAS test site. "They're looking at doing a test site COA where, within certain parameters—size, weight, system, things like that—you could fly anything you want within those parameters within that test site. It just gives you more flexibility to be able to fly new ve- hicles, modified vehicles, things like that, with- out having to go back every time to get a brand new COA." In time the agency may also authorize the test sites to become desig- nated airworthiness repre sent at ive s, said interviewees. If granted this would allow the six FAA ranges to be able to determine airworthi- ness certification for un- manned aircraft. "That's probably the biggest ad- vantage of getting named as a test site as any- thing," said Becklund. "The expedited, or the pri- ority I should say, on airspace authorization and then also the eventual designation as an airwor- thiness representative for them." The FAA did not respond to a request for com- ment by press time about the assistance it might be giving the test ranges. The possibility, however, of FAA largess for the six sites is raising concerns among some of those competing with them. "The FAA test sites were established for one principle reason—to aid the FAA in integration of UAS into the national airspace. What I don't believe they intended was to give preference in commercial industry development to those six test areas," said Gary Bartmann, chairman of the board of Rocky Mountain UAS, Colorado's test site applicant. "If they're going to change the rules with regard to commercial development they shouldn't just apply to those six areas, they should apply across the board to whoever has an approved certificate, COAs, and not give an ad- vantage or commercial preference to the areas that were selected for helping them out with in- tegration into the national airspace." There is also rising concern about a sud- den enforcement of rules putting military air- space largely off limits for UAS testing. The shift, triggered by a query from the FAA to the Department of Defense, appears to have surprised range managers across the country. The vast majority of applications, including those from the six FAA sites , incorporated military airspace into their proposals. The decision has already knocked one test-range operator in Wyoming out of business and has the potential to hamstring other ranges if left unchanged. That does not mean the nonFAA-test ranges are at odds with the agency. In fact there was across-the-board support for the agency's ef- forts among those interviewed and the major- ity volunteered that they would gladly supply the agency with safety-related data from flights at their ranges. Above: At least 19 states offer test range services for unmanned aircraft. Right: UAS experts in Florida study their screens during a demonstration. Photos courtesy of NGAT Center at North Carolina State University, Ohio/Indiana UAS Center & Test Complex, Space Florida Circular photo by Bill Bauman ENSCO & Brent Klavon ASEC Inc./Courtesy of Space Florida