FAA to pick 6 sites for U.S. drone tests
WASHINGTON — The complicated business of integrating unmanned aircraft into U.S. skies full of small planes and airliners will begin at six test sites and require several years of testing, the Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday.
Twenty-four states — including Virginia and Maryland — have applied to host the testing sites, but the FAA has yet to determine where they will be located. In presenting what it called a “road map” for the evolution of unmanned planes into the system, the FAA acknowledged it would take longer than Congress had hoped when it set a September 2015 deadline for granting them general access to the skies.
“Government and industry face significant challenges as unmanned aircraft move into the aviation mainstream,” Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said in a statement. “This road map is an important step forward that will help stakeholders understand the operational goals and safety issues we need to consider when planning for the future of our airspace.”
Until the testing is complete, the FAA said it would grant flight privileges to unmanned aircraft operators on a case-bycase basis.
Unmanned aircraft come in many shapes and sizes. Military drones being used for surveillance or missile strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan have gotten the greatest measure of public attention, and similar aircraft could be used domestically to monitor traffic conditions, weather patterns and assorted other things.
“From advancing scientific research and responding to natural disasters to locating missing persons and helping to fight wildfires, [unmanned aircraft] can save time, save money, and, most importantly, save lives,” Michael Toscano, president the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, said in applauding the FAA road map.
The same technology that allows pilots to fly those relatively small aircraft from afar can be used to fly larger planes. Although public backlash likely would prevent airlines from replacing pilots on passenger planes, it’s possible that similar-size planes carrying packages and other freight could be flown by ground-based pilots.
Public fear of a spy in the sky, peering down on people like the drones hunting down Taliban and al-Qaida members in Pakistan, has raised concerns about privacy as unmanned aircraft take flight in the United States.
The FAA said Thursday it would require that the six testsite operators establish and follow practices to protect from encroachment on the privacy of those below.
“In requiring test sites to have a written plan for data use and retention, the FAA also appropriately focuses on the real issue when it comes to privacy — the use, storage and sharing of data, or whether data collected must be deleted,” Toscano said. “Privacy laws must be platform neutral, treating manned and unmanned platforms the same.”
The road map also deals with policies, regulations and procedures required to integrate the coming flock of unmanned aircraft into the revolutionary new aviation control system known as NextGen.
The goal of NextGen, often described as a GPS-based system but actually far more complex than that, is to replace a 60-year-old radar-based system that directs landings and takeoffs and keeps planes from colliding in midair.
That system should result in significant fuel savings, less pollution, more direct routing of flights and a general expansion of air traffic to accommodate projected growing demand for air travel. Tossing an as yet unknown number of unmanned aircraft into that mix complicates the equation.