In July, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the first time allowed multiple US companies to fly commercial drones in the same airspace as long as their operators could not see them in full flight. Reaching this milestone on the path to expanding U.S. commercial drone use requires a lot of research into the concept of flight beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) — and NASA is leading the way. I helped.
For BVLOS flights to become the norm, reliable automation technology needs to be built into drones and aerospace systems, as pilots or air traffic controllers will not be able to see all drones operating at once. To address these challenges, NASA developed several key technologies, most notably Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Traffic Management (UTM), which allows digital sharing of each drone user’s planned flight details. Gives
“In collaboration with the FAA and industry, NASA’s groundbreaking work on UTM, below 400 feet,” said Premal Kopardekar, NASA’s Advanced Air Mobility Mission Integration Manager. Set the stage for safe and scalable small drone flights.” “This technology is now globally adopted as the key to enabling visual line-of-sight drone operations.”
With UTM, every drone user can have the same situational awareness of the airspace where the drone is flying. This foundation of technology development, led by NASA’s UTM project, allows drones to fly BVLOS today with special FAA approval.
Drones today can fly BVLOS at an FAA test site and in some other select areas with prior approval from the FAA based on risks. However, the FAA is working on new regulation to allow future BVLOS operations without exemptions and waivers.
The NASA UTM team invented a new approach to airspace management – a style of air traffic management where multiple parties, from government to commercial industry, work together to provide services. These include flight planning, pre-flight strategic conflicts, communications, surveillance and other focus areas required for safe flight.
This technology is being used by now FAA approved parts of the Dallas areaallows commercial drone companies to deliver packages using NASA-initiated UTM research. UTM allows for strategic coordination between operators so that each company can monitor its drone flight to ensure that each drone is where it should be on the planned flight path. Test sites like Dallas help the FAA identify requirements needed to safely enable small drone operations across the country.
NASA Also working to ensure public safety drones. Get priority when operating in the same airspace with commercial drones. In another BVLOS attempt, NASA is using drones to test the technology. which can be used in air taxis. Each of these efforts brings us one step closer to seeing supplies or packages routinely delivered by drone around the US.