40 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION
line-of-sight (BLOS) operations,
airspace navigation, air traffic control
integration and, not least of all,
collision avoidance.
Until then, full-scale expansion of
the industry will be limited to current
regulatory frameworks.
The good news is that both industry
and key global regulators, led by the
US and Europe, either recognise or
are beginning to confront barriers to
development. Co-ordination and co-
operation is now a work in progress.
What’s in a name
The terms unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV), unmanned aircraft systems
(UAS), remotely piloted aircraft (RPA)
or, simply, “drone” are in common
use depending either on the specific
vehicle type and mode of operation, or
country of origin and/or regulation.
The common denominator is that
when it comes to machines, we are
talking about aircraft piloted by
remote control or solely by onboard
computer systems.
The growth of the drone industry in
the past decade has been exponential.
In January, US drone registrations
(FAA) exceeded one million for the first
time, though just over 12 per cent were
classified as commercial operators. In
Australia there are now 1,310 Remotely
Piloted Aircraft Operator Certificate
(ReOC) holders on the CASA register,
close to double the figures for last year.
Holders of a ReOC are both licensed
and certified by CASA to conduct
commercial operations and employ
licensed RPA pilots.
While most of us can be forgiven
for thinking drones are a relatively
recent phenomenon, history tells a
different story. Long-time aerospace
strategist and acknowledged RPA
expert Peter La Franchi points out
that Australian inventor A J Roberts
was demonstrating radio-controlled
unmanned airships as early as
1912 in Australia. He then took his
invention to the United Kingdom
with an Australian Government
recommendation that maybe he
should demonstrate possible military
applications to the UK War Office.
Regulation, meanwhile, dates back
to 1944 when unmanned aircraft first
received coverage under the Chicago
Convention on International Civil
Aviation, Article 8.
That said, growth has really
gathered pace in the past 10 years
with the development of off-the-
shelf drone packages pitched both
at hobbyists and small commercial
operators: literally buy the thing in
the box, open the box and fly. For Ben
Harris, CEO of commercial operator
National Drones, that growth has been
further spurred by swift technological
development.
“Miniaturisation of technology
means you can get a DJI [company]
drone today for $1,500 to $2,000 with
a capability similar to a drone that
would have cost $100,000 five years
ago,” he said.
While the individual commercial
operators have been beavering away
in developing businesses aimed at
a wide range of applications suchas commercial photography, aerial
mapping, surveying, search and
rescue, crop spraying and even
mustering, it is the industrial and
commercial giants that have grabbed
the consumer headlines.
Amazon was one of the early
adopters with what is now part of its
Prime Air strategy: at one end of the
scale it involves a fleet of Boeing 767
freighters and, at the other end, a
fleet of parcel delivery drones capable
of delivering packages up to five
pounds (2.2 kilos) in weight within
30 minutes. Its drone plans have been
in the air for more than five years and
there are now development centres
in the US, UK, Austria, France and
Israel.
While there has been some progress
with trials in the UK in particular, and
speculation deliveries in rural areas
could begin as early as 2020 following
an easing of European line of sight
flight regulations, there is more doubt
about a start date for delivery in and“One day, seeing Prime Air
vehicles will be as normal as
seeing mail trucks on the road,”
Amazon promises.AMAZON.Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed
takes a five minute flight over Dubai in
September last year.VOLOCOPTER