AIR International – June 2018

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US Navy MQ-4C Triton enters service

SCENE

On June 12, a large UAV flew

in the United States’ National

Airspace System on its own for

the first time. NASA’s Ikhana, a

General Atomics Aeronautical

Systems Inc MQ-9 Predator

B from the Armstrong Flight

Research Centre at Edwards Air

Force Base, California, conducted

the flight, which marks a major

milestone in the Federal Aviation

Administration (FAA) efforts to

integrate large UAV operations in

civil airspace in the United States.

Ikhana departed Edwards and

entered Class A airspace, where

commercial airliners fly, just to

the west at an altitude of about

20,000ft. The aircraft then turned

north towards Fresno, requiring air

traffic control to be transferred from

the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic

Control Centre to the Oakland

centre. On the return trip, Ikhana

flew south towards Victorville,

requiring communication control

to be transferred back to Los

Angeles. The remote pilot then

began a gentle decent over the city

of Tehachapi into Class E airspace

at about 10,000ft and approached

Victorville Airport at 6,000ft,

coordinating in real time with air

traffic controllers at the airport,

before returning to Edwards.

The demonstration saw Ikhana use its

own detect and avoid technologies,

which complied with FAA Technical

Standard Orders, including an

airborne radar developed by General

Atomics, a Honeywell traffic alert

and collision avoidance system and

a detect and avoid fusion tracker.

Mark Broadbent

Ikhana’s milestone flight

Maintenance crews prepare NASA’s Ikhana at the Armstrong Flight Research Centre on June 12, 2018, ahead of its test flight to validate key technologies and operations

necessary for UAV operations in civil airspace. Ken Ulbrich/NASA

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