34 In Flig ht USACelebrating 34 Years Decembe r 201 7Havean eventcomingup?Submitit forpublicationintheInFlightUSA
EventsCalendaronlineatinflightusa.comByInFligh tUSAEdi tor ial St aff
T
he team atIn Fl ight US Awel -
com esreadersto our new sectio n
de dic at ed to small Unmanned
Aeri al Syst ems (sU AS), mo re generical -
lyrefer red toas “drones.” Ou rregu lar
rea de rs may won der what dron es have to
do with Cessnas, Pipers, and ot her such
GA typ eflyi ng, but one need sto loo kat
the hist or yofInFl ight USA.Ov er the last
3 4ye ars, wehave covered all aspects of
avia tion, from typi cal GA subjects ,to air -
show activi ties, mi litary cov erag e, busi-
ness avi ation, space -related vent ures and
awide var iet yof indu stry news. Mo stimpo rtant ,westriveto pu blish curr ent
news and produ ct information, seldom
mor ethanjust afewdays ol d.
Itisnowo nd er that thesta ffofIn
Flight USAwo ul dtake aclose lookat the
newest arrival to the Na tion al Airsp ace
System,andhave nodo ubt, drones are in
the airspac e for mal ly thou ght to be the
dom ainof“con tempora ry”flying ma chine.
Since impl ement ation of FAR 107 just
mor ethan aye ar ago ,80,000individuals
have obtain ed their FA A sUAS
Ce rtificat es,enabl ing themto operat eever
incre asi ng lysophisticateddro nevaria tions
forcommer cial pu rpo ses. Ne wssta tion s,
mov iemake rs,thereal-est ateindustry ,pu b-lic utility comp anies, con struction firms,
law enforcemen t, and too ma ny ot her
applicationstona me are no wusin gdrones
ofsome ki ndforsome purp ose.Wi thmil -
lionsof dronesnowinuse, rang ingfrom
toystothe Air ForceX-37BOr bi talTe st
Vehicl e (Sp ace Pl ane) , dron es are the
fastest growi ngsid eofavi ationaroundthe
world.An ypub licationtha tdoesnotrepor t
onthisexplosiv euse ofAme ricanAirspace
is just notservingtheneedsofaviation
fans... besi des... theyare incredibly fun!
Weinv itereadersto lear nwi th us,as
In Flight US Apros exp lore thi snew wo rld.
Did you kno w that “dr one simulators”
exist,lear ni ngthelessonstau ght bylarg eaircr aftsimul ation?Howabout aut ostabi -
lizati on and pr ogr aming, so a “fa mily ”
dronecan standoff at asafedi sta nc eand
video asoccergame?Tobe sure,watching
theRed Bul lpylo nraces is exci ting, bu t
imagine we aring a 3-D vi ewing device
andraci ngadron earoundpylons ,vie wed
frominside theDrone! Yo ucansitin a
chair, mu nchonnachos ,dr inkacool bev-
erage, and ge t air sic k all at the same
time... soun dlikefun?
This is only thebeginning .Joi nus
for the funandinformation asInFlight
USA adds ye tanot her facetofaviationto
our pa ge sfor yo u, ourreaders,tolearn
from and mo st important ly... enjoy.WEL CO ME TO ASTEP INTO TH EFUT URE
FA AFIEL DSPRO TOTYP EUAS AIRSPA CE AUTHORIZ AT IONSYSTEM
FAA APP RO VE SDRO NE TO RESTOR EPUE RTO RICO CEL L SERV ICE
FA ASEEKI NGPUBLI CCOMMENT AR Y ON FLIGHT SCA N S-100
The Fe de ral Avia tion Ad min istratio n
(FA A) iseval uati ng apro totype system
that the agency expect swill ult imately
prov ide near real -timeproces sin gofair -
spa ce aut hori za tion reque sts for
unm an ned ai rcraft (UA S) opera tors
natio nw ide. The syst em is desi gn ed to
auto ma ticallyappr ove mo st req ues ts to
op erate in specifi c areas of airs pac e
belo wde sign ated alti tud es.
The FAA has dep loy ed the Low
Altitu de Aut hor ization and Not ificat ion
Cap ability( LA AN C) fordron eoperato rs
at seve ralair traff ic facili ties in an evalu -atio ntosee how wellthe pro totyp esys -
temfun ctio ns andtoaddre ss any iss ue s
that aris e du ring testing. Two agenc y-
appr oved compa nie s, Ai rMa p and
Skyward, ar e cur rentl y provi di ng
LAA NC services. Duri ngthe evalua tion ,
theFAAmay sign agreements wi th addi -
tio nal pr ovi ders who respo nde d to the
origin al reque stfor infor mat ion.
Th e prototyp e evalua tion will last
unti l next Spr ing. Th e FAA plans to
launc hana tiona lBeta test short ly the re-
after. Th eexa ctdetails ofthe test wi ll be
determine dby the outcome of the pro to-type evalu atio n. The agen cy also pla ns to
solic it pa rtic ipa tion from new indus try
par tner satalater da te.
Unde rtheFAA ’s small dr one rules –
for mall yknow nas Part107 –ope rators
nee dto sec ur eappr ova lfro mtheage ncy
to oper ate in any airspa cecont rolle dby
an air traff ic facility .LA ANC isthe first
appli cation de velope d by indus try in
res ponse tothis ope rat iona lneed.
LAANC us es airspace dataprovided
through theUA Sfacility maps.Themaps
showthe ma ximumalti tudearoun dair-
portswh eretheFAA mayauthorize op era-tionsunderPa rt 107 .LAANCgiv es dron e
operators theabi lity to int era ctwith the
mapsandpro videautomaticnotific ation
andaut horization reque sts to the FAA.
LA ANCis thefirstUAStool tha t
de live rsdr one information toairtraffic
contr ol andisthe first stepindeveloping
Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic
Ma na ge ment System(UT M).
Check the FAA’s UAS Data
Ex cha ng e at https: //ww w.f aa.gov/ uas/
programs_part ne rships/uas_d ata_exc han
ge / website frequ ent ly for updates and
additi ona linf ormation.The Fe de ral Avi ation Ad min ist rati on
(FAA) quic kly appr oved the first
unma nn ed aircraft operati on ofits kind
last mont htohelp restore cell ular service
in Pu ert oRi co in the wake ofHurricane
Maria.
The Fl yi ng COW (Cell on Win gs )dr on e, de ve lope d by AT& T, funct ions
like a cell tower in the sky, rest orin g
vo ice, dataand int ernet servic e.Itflies up
to 20 0feet abo ve the ground, cove ring an
areaof 40 squ are miles,and is pa rtic ula r-
ly us efulin remote area s.
The Pul se Vapor 55 dr one, whi chrese mble samini atur ehelic opt er,isfit ted
with LT Eradio sand ante nnas andis tet h-
ered to ground-based elect ronics and
pow er systems. Because the aircraft
exce ededthe55-lb .weigh tlim it requir ed
to oper ate under the FAA’s small dr one
rule, the FAA ha d to issu e a spe cialexemp tio nandanemergencycertificate
of auth ori zation forAT& Ttocon du ctits
miss ion.
The com panyisusingthedroneasa
tempor arycell servi cesolutionwhile it
rebuilds thepe rmane ntinf rastruc tur eon
the isla nd.For the first time, the Fe dera l
Avia tio nAd mi ni str ation (FA A) is seek -
ing pu bli c com ments on propos ed air-
worth iness criter ia for an unman ned air -
craft syste m,mor epopu larly kno wn as a
“dro ne.”
The Fe de ral Regi ste rno tice ask sfor
commen ts on prop osed desig nstand ards
ne ede d for the Fl igh tScan Co rpo rat ion
Cam copt erS-1 00 tofly safely inU.S .air -space.The ultima tego al of this and othe r
pr oj ects is to gr ant FAA airwo rthi ness
certif ica tion toful ly fun cti onal ,ready-to -
op erate un ma nn edaircraft .The S-100 is
the firstunma nne daircra ft toha ve its cer-
tif ication ba sis pub lished.
The Camc op terS- 100 is ave rti cal
tak e-off drone tha tloo ks muc hlike atra-
diti on alhelic opte r.Itis pow ered byaliq -
uid -cool edrot aryengi ne and has amax i-mum take-o ff we ight of 44 0 po und s
includ ing its pa yloa d. Th edron e’s main
pu rpo seis to cond uct airbor ne surve yi ng
of powe r transm issi on infrastructure
us ing aeria lphotog rap hy.
Fligh tScan appli ed forFAAcertifi-
catio nofthe S-100 us ing the spe cialclass
pr ovis ions und er Part21. 17( b)ofFAA
regul atio ns in June of201 5. Sinc ethe n,
theage ncyhas wo rke dwith thecompa nyto de ve lop airw or thinesscriteriathatsup-
por tsafeinte gr ationof theS-10 0intothe
Natio nal Air spac eSystem.
After the comment period ending
Dec.18 ,20 17, theFAAwilleva luatethe
publ ic comm ents to determi ne if any
changessho uld bemadeto theproposed
airwor thine ss criteria. Formor einforma-
tion ,visit faa.go v.Drone Update