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 20 unmanned systems inside Spring 2014 Interestingly this list was to include UAS re- search activities with FAA partner agencies, such as NASA and DoD. The agency was also still working on a sepa- rate but related problem—setting up the data plan for taking in the test results. Getting the plan right is critical, said Greene. "Disparate and dissimilar data provided to the FAA is go- ing to make their job extremely difficult." Once the data plan is determined someone needs to create a mechanism—a dedicated website perhaps—for submitting and sharing the information. Several companies and uni- versities have approached the FAA about pro- viding this service, according to interviewees, and the Hughes Technical Center might be tapped for the job, but as of press time, no an- nouncement had been made. Dollars for Data The real challenge, however, will come later. After they choose someone to gather the data, someone will have to figure out how to pay them for their efforts because Congress failed to provide the funds needed to support the test ranges' work. "They (FAA officials) recognize that capturing, storing and processing and disseminating data is not something that test sites can do for free," said Greene. "So let's say it's a year or two down the road and we're doing hundreds of test flights a year—in that situation there is going to be a tremendous amount of data. How do we man- age that data at no cost to the FAA? I think it's unrealistic. They agree it's unrealistic. So I think there's an expectation there's going to have to be some remuneration for the cost of collecting that data. It's just that I don't think anybody knows ex- actly how that's going to happen at the moment." Fortunately, there are members of Congress who are at least monitoring the situation. Rep. Frank LoBiondo, R-N.J., chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, asked Filler about funding needs during the March 5 roundtable. "We're at the front edge," he said, "once we get a little bit further down the roadway, so to speak, are you going to have the resources to do what needs to be done?" "This is a big problem (to solve) and addition- al resources would be required at some point," responded Filler. Those resources will likely need to pay for more than just the data system. Everything is now dependent on getting enough of the right kind of information from whatever research is being conducted independently by test range users. With this approach, those interviewed agreed, there was no guarantee the agency would get enough of, or the right kind of, infor- mation. Aviation officials need resources to be able to fill in the gaps. "They (the FAA) can't be directive to us be- cause there's no funding," said Becklund. "What we're hoping," Becklund said, "is that there'll be a larger coordinated effort out there at the national level. When I say that I don't 1. A small drone rests on the ground during a demonstration in Florida. 2. The Golden Eagle, a UAV developed at Clarkson University, takes wing. 2 1 Photo 1. Bill Bauman of ENSCO & Brent Klavon ASEC Inc./Courtesy of Space Florida, Photo 2. Len Tompos/ Courtesy of Clarkson University, Photo 3. Dominick Reuter/Courtesy of Massachusetts Institute of Technol- ogy, Photo 4. Courtesy of AeroVironment, Inc., www.avinc.com