Unmanned Aerial Systems in Civil Airspace

In November 2014, the US National Transportation Safety Board made the inevitable declaration that ‘drones’ are aircraft and therefore, subject to all existing aviation laws of the land. Common sense tells us that any object that uses the medium of air to move from one place to another or even hover over a point under its own power and under someone’s control or in an autonomous mode is a potential hazard to another similar object. Therefore, there is a need to regulate the use of the medium of air by any object airborne.

The terminology in respect of flying objects not carrying a pilot on board is a proliferate one. The terms unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), drones and aero-models are some of the tags widely used to describe these. Their size varies from a few grams in weight to huge vehicles flying for hundreds of hours at high altitude. NASA’s Helios is one such illustration.

While the term ‘drone’ is used loosely to describe objects of interest, it would be appropriate to understand the terminology used by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the specialised, global, codifying agency uniting all UN Member States. Vide its Circular 328 issued in 2011 and entitled unmanned aircraft systems, the ICAO has defined unmanned aircraft as an aircraft which is intended to operate with no pilot onboard and an unmanned aircraft system as an aircraft and its associated elements which are operated with no pilot onboard.

The term remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) is also used by ICAO to define an aircraft piloted by a licensed ‘remote pilot’ situated at a ‘remote pilot station’ located external to the aircraft, i.e. ground, ship, another aircraft or space, who monitors the aircraft at all times and can respond to instructions issued by ATC, communicates via voice or data link as appropriate to the airspace or operation and has direct responsibility for the safe conduct of the aircraft throughout its flight. Thus, RPA is a subset of unmanned aircraft and so, while UAS is used by ICAO as an all-encompassing term, RPA is only the piloted part of UAS.

Proliferation of UAS

Although military use of drones for unarmed and armed roles, the latter as unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAV) has been prevalent for a long time. In the last two or three years, civilian use of drones has bourgeoned and is posing a challenge to national aviation safety regulators all over the world. Many military applications are being modified for civilian use while innovations are flooding the market. One of the most popular gift items for children these days is a remotely controlled quadcopter about 50 cm long. The Indian market is replete with inexpensive Chinese versions of this four-rotored helicopter costing as little as Rs. 1,500. This toy resembles what Indian newspapers showed in May last year as an Amazon demonstration of an unmanned package delivery by a drone.

Incidentally, in December 2013, Amazon had announced its planned service Amazon Prime Air and said that it was investing heavily in research and development to design and develop drones for delivery of wares. Interestingly, all such development has been done outside the US as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) prohibits commercial use of drones.

Google’s Project Wing, launched in 2011, aimed at achieving package delivery by unmanned aircraft but has identified challenges to its fruition as issues of air vehicle safety and reliability, customer privacy, neighbourhood noise, wind turbulence and the possibility of packages being stolen. There is also the possibility of customers trying to grab the package while the drone is still in the air. However, it appears certain that unmanned package delivery will be a certainty in a couple of years.

Besides their use for aerial delivery, drones are a big and fast growing business segment; according to an analysis by ConvergEx Group, ‘drone’ is the fourth most common auto-fill response for the phrase “I want to buy” on Google search engine. The commercial applications for drones appear to be limitless. Michael Toscano, CEO of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) categorises them into four classes thus, “We call them four Ds – for the Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult and Dull jobs that humans do everyday”. Some of the tasks listed by him are visual inspections of structures such as bridges, precision agriculture monitoring, wildfire monitoring, aerial delivery and pipeline inspection. While these applications are attracting attention worldwide, some countries have made considerable progress. Japan, for example, has been using UAS for crop dusting and precision agriculture for the last two decades.

One of the areas where drones are of commercial use is that of photography as they are ideally suited to achieve vantage points that are difficult for a human photographer to reach. GoPro, a US photographic equipment company plans to sell multi-rotor, unmanned helicopters equipped with high definition cameras by end-2015. Photography enthusiasts eagerly await their opportunity to take their first ‘dronie’, the drone version of a selfie! Meanwhile, SZ DJI Technology Company of China, a big consumer drone manufacturer, since end-2013, is selling devices that come with built-in cameras. Other uses of drones include filmmaking, farming, construction and forestry.

Regulatory Conundrum

In the US, commercial use of drones is prohibited pending promulgation of necessary regulation regarding their use. Hobbysists can, however, fly them under certain stringent conditions. For example, no drone may be flown within 50 metres of a building. The FAA is working on the rules and regulations to integrate drones into airspace and is close to issuing a proposed regulation for the commercial use of small UAS, aircraft that weigh less than 25 kg. The FAA has received 91 applications for exceptions to its prohibition on drones and has given some specific waivers to special applicants including six filmmaking companies. The James Bond movie Skyfall was shot partly with the help of drones.

In Europe, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) grants certificates on a case-by-case basis, but follows a lengthy process. Requests for drone operations in unpopulated or sparsely populated areas are usually complied with. In Australia, there are no regulations for model aircraft used for sport, recreation and education but commercial use requires a process for operations. Brazil, a leading user of drones, has no direct laws infringing on civilian use while the state uses it to patrol borders, amongst other uses.

In Canada, it is relatively easy to get permits for individually owned model aircraft weighing less than 35 kg, provided these are not used for profiteering. If these drones come with a small camera or do not meet the above three conditions, the required specifications for operational permits are much tougher. In the UK, small UAVs weighing up to 20 kg can easily secure permits. But there are restrictions on where and how high these are allowed to fly. Permits to fly in rural areas are more acceptable. Anything heavier or used for aerial photography requires permits to carry out aerial work.

Indian Scenario

The Indian penchant for putting technology to good use is visible in many areas. During the 2015 Annual Flower Show at Bengaluru’s Lal Bagh, a drone belonging to Vyoma Aerospace was on surveillance duties for the Horticulture Department. It detected and reported a potentially threatening fire which may have caused damage. The Delhi Forest Department has also plans to procure drones to collect and monitor data on extent of forest land, encroachment and threat to boundaries of reserved or protected forests. Subsequently, the department has plans for monitoring and surveillance of wildlife.

There have been reports of drones being used at weddings, by a hospital for its launch function, at malls and at promotional events. In May 2014, as mentioned earlier, a pizza was delivered in Mumbai as a demonstration of the potential of drones. Meanwhile in Kochi, five robotics engineers are racing against time and other competitors to deliver a prototype drone to Amazon for its Prime Air service. Their company, TechJeeva, has promised an all-weather drone that can fly for up to one hour with a payload of 2.3 kg. Amazon has neither denied nor confirmed the development but there is a high probability that the pizza that first gets delivered by Amazon Prime Air could well be on a drone designed in Kochi.

Not all use of drones is well-intentioned. On January 10, 2015, Chennai police learnt of a drone that crashed on the terrace of a building in Foreshore Estate where a foreigner was sunbathing. Personal privacy would definitely be under threat from malevolent drone operators in search for audio and video footage captured without consent for profit, blackmail or harassment.

A regulatory framework is yet to be put into place for use of drones in India. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had issued a public notice on October 7, 2014, which while recognising the potential of drones for civil applications, points out that the ICAO is yet to publish any standards and recommended practices in respect of UAS. The public notice goes on to warn that “The DGCA is in the process of formulating the regulations and globally harmonise those for certification and operation for use of UAS in the Indian civil airspace. Till such regulations are issued, no non-government agency, organisation or an individual will launch a UAS in Indian civil airspace for any purpose whatsoever.”

Safety Concerns

As drones proliferate, there has been rising concern over safety issues. While the regulatory and aircraft operating authorities are concerned about the rising number of air proximity incidences, drone manufacturing companies are worried about the possibility of a backlash from safety campaigners to an extent that the commercial profitability of the drone industry is affected adversely. The FAA has been receiving about 25 reports per month on an average of drones sighted flying near manned aircraft or airports.

Margaret Gilligan, the FAA’s Associate Administrator for Safety, blames ignorance on the part of the drone operators and says that most of them do not intend to interfere with manned aircraft but, “they just don’t know what they don’t know”. With reports of small unmanned aircraft flying near airports and aircraft, over nuclear power plants and sporting events, pressure is building up in the US to find ways to open low-altitude airspace to legal ‘drone’ activity while ensuring safety and privacy. NASA plans a five-year effort to develop the UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system. This will provide UAS users an internet portal to file trajectories and check them for weather, obstacles and other traffic. Airspace operators will be able to geo-fence areas, authenticate users and issue an “all land” order in an emergency. Early work on the web interface has begun in Alaska.

Conclusion

As the number of drones and drone operators increase, safety concerns will rise. What one hopes is that safety regulations designed to ensure safety of manned aircraft and drones sharing the same aerospace are enshrined in all nations before a major, catastrophic accident involving drones occurs to jolt the aviation community out of its leisurely amble towards a regulatory framework.