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The DOT announces the UAS Integration Pilot Program selectees, and the Small UAS Coalition responds. The future of Aurora’s Hybrid-Electric VTOL X-Plane is uncertain, and Uber wants to be your air taxi service provider, but many others want to play a role as well.
UAV News
The U.S. Department of Transportation received more than 140 applications for the FAA UAS Integration Pilot Program, created to accelerate drone integration in the national airspace. DOT announced 10 UAS Integration Pilot Program Awardees who will conduct flight tests under the three-year program. Following are the ten selectees along with a brief description of their projects:
Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, Durant, OK – Agricultural, public safety and infrastructure inspections, with planned Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations over people and nighttime operations.
City of San Diego, CA – Border protection and package delivery of food, with a secondary focus on international commerce, Smart City/autonomous vehicle interoperability and surveillance.
Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority, Herndon, VA – Facilitate package delivery in rural and urban settings.
Kansas Department of Transportation, Topeka, KS – Deploy UAS to support beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations in rural communities, leverage a statewide unmanned traffic management system to facilitate precision agriculture operations.
Lee County Mosquito Control District, Ft. Myers, FL – Low-altitude aerial applications to control/surveil the mosquito population using a 1500-lb. UAS.
Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, Memphis, TN – Inspection of FedEx aircraft and autonomous operations that support airport operations such as perimeter security surveillance and package delivery.
North Carolina Department of Transportation, Raleigh, NC – Test localized package delivery within a defined airspace by establishing drone delivery stations in local communities. This approach enables small businesses to utilize this delivery platform for commercial purposes.
North Dakota Department of Transportation, Bismarck, ND – Diverse operations that incorporate advanced technologies that seek to expand UAS operations at night and Beyond Visual Line of Sight.
The City of Reno, NV – Time-sensitive delivery of life-saving medical equipment, such as medical defibrillators in emergency situations in both urban and rural environments. See also, Reno, Flirtey among 10 chosen nationally for drone partnership.
University of Alaska-Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK – Pipeline inspection and surveying in remote areas and harsh climatic conditions.
The Small UAV Coalition, representing consumer and technology companies, is very happy with the “Notification to UAS Operators Proposing To Engage in Air Transportation” that was published in the Federal Register. In their press release Small UAV Coalition Applauds DOT for Taking Steps to Authorize UAS Delivery Operations [PDF], the Coalition says they applaud “the Department of Transportation (DOT) for announcing that it will use existing exemption authority to grant economic authority to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) operators seeking to carry property in air transportation, an important step to expedite UAS delivery operations in the United States. The Coalition has long encouraged DOT to take this step and is pleased that it will be available to operators as the UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) gets underway.”
The Small UAV Coalition is also happy with the applicants selected to participate in the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration Pilot Program (IPP). In Small UAV Coalition Congratulates Secretary Chao and First UAS Integration Pilot Program Selections [PDF], they say, “The Coalition is pleased that UAS IPP has moved forward so quickly since it was first established by the President just a few months ago. The pace is emblematic of the urgency around developing a regulatory framework that will enable the safe integration of UAS into the national airspace and allow the United States to keep pace with other countries that are increasingly moving beyond pilot programs to ubiquity and integration.”
DARPA no longer plans to build and fly the XV-24A LightningStrike from Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences. Aurora won an $89 million contract for Phases 2 and 3 of the program in March 2016 and flew a 20%-scale, all-electric demonstrator in April 2016. But the Phase 2 full-scale demonstrator isn’t progressing well enough for DARPA and they have decided not to proceed into Phase 3 and flight testing.
Uber wants to develop a network of air taxi operators. They previously announced their interest in Dallas and Dubai, and now Uber has added Los Angeles as a test market. Uber sees its network of air taxis flying 20% of the 45.8 million daily Los Angeles trips from rooftop and purpose-built skyports with up to 1,000 landings and takeoffs per hour.
At the Uber Elevate event, Embraer announced it formed the “Embraer X” division to work on urban air taxis. Their four-passenger concept vehicle is called the “DreamMaker.”
NASA and Uber signed an agreement under which Uber will provide its plans for an urban aviation rideshare network and NASA will use computer modeling and simulation to assess the impacts of small aircraft in crowded environments.
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