GAO Report: Drones in the NAS

Air Safety Week, Oct 20, 2008

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, recently issued a report regarding the safe operation of unmanned aerial systems (UASs) in the National Airspace System (NAS).

The GAO recommends that the Congress create an overarching body with the FAA to coordinate the integration of UAS into the NAS. It said the FAA should issue its program plan and analyze the data it has collected on civil drone operations to realize the public benefits of UASs as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security should assess the security implications of routine UAS access to the airspace.

"Routine UAS access to the national airspace system poses technological, regulatory, workload, and coordination challenges. A key technological challenge is providing the capability for UASs to meet the safety requirements of the NAS. For example, a person operating an aircraft must maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid other aircraft. However, because UASs have no person on board the aircraft, on-board equipment, radar, or direct human observation must substitute for this capability. No technology has been identified as a suitable substitute for a person on board the aircraft in seeing and avoiding other aircraft." The GAO report said.

"Additionally, UASs communications and control links are vulnerable to unintentional or intentional radio interference that can lead to loss of control of an aircraft and an accident, it added.

And UASs lack security protection---a potential challenge if UASs proliferate as expected after obtaining routine airspace access.

"The lack of FAA regulations for UASs limits their operation to case-by- case approvals by the FAA. Anticipated increases in requests to operate UASs could pose a workload challenge for the FAA. Coordinating multiple efforts to address these challenges is yet another challenge," the GAO has stated.

Government and private sector interest is growing in UASs for use in a variety of missions such as U.S. border protection, hurricane research, law enforcement, and real estate photography. However, UASs can fly only after the FAA conducts a case-by-case safety analysis

UASs are currently being used by federal agencies for border security, science research, and other purposes. Local governments see potential uses in law enforcement or firefighting and the private sector sees potential uses, such as real estate photography.

An industry survey states that UAS production could increase in the future to meet such government and private-sector uses. Experts predict that UASs could perform some manned aircraft missions with less noise and fewer emissions.

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