Title: The Need for a Comprehensive Unmanned Aircraft Management System
Abstract: Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) operations in the U.S. began with various military applications, and these provided the basis for wider civilian UAS applications. However, the introduction of civilian UAS requires a totally new approach because it raises questions that were not applicable to the majority of military UAS applications. At this point in time, there is a need to establish a comprehensive UAS Management System to help address the challenges associated with civilian-oriented UAS registration, pilot training and licensing, operations, inspections, standards testing, traffic management and control, and fleet management. The lack of such a comprehensive management system impedes wider UAS proliferation, which, in turn, reduces the ability for domestic manufacturers and potential UAS customers to contribute to the potential multi-billion-dollar civilian UAS market. This ultimately limits U.S. competitiveness in the global UAS technology arena. The objective of this paper is three-fold: 1) to describe a framework to assist with the development of a comprehensive UAS Management System; 2) to present a concept of operations and system architecture to aid in the identification of UAS Management System modules, data elements, and roles and responsibilities; and 3) to provide an illustrative example of a UAS agricultural application, as rural areas are expected to serve host to simplified preliminary builds of selected modules of UAS Management System. This paper will be of interest to the FAA, State DOTs, industry partners, and other UAS stakeholders as they move forward to develop strategies and action plans to integrate UAS into the National Air Space.
Publication Year: 2016
Publication Date: 2016-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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