Non-Subscriber Extract
UAVs close in on civil space
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| 14 February 2007 |
By Wes Carleton
While many technical obstacles must still be overcome before unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) can enter civil controlled airspace, government and industry organisations are actively engaged in establishing national and international regulations for their eventual introduction. The November 2006 conference of UVS Canada, the Canadian UAV association, held in Montebello, Quebec, heard presentations from ICAO, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Eurocontrol, joint government/industry specialist groups and other organisations on how the safe integration of UAVs could be achieved.
While there is much greater UAV activity in the US than elsewhere, there is a clear recognition within the worldwide civil aviation community that UAV activity is increasing rapidly, and that uniform standards should now be established. One financial industry forecast reported by Peter van Blyenburgh, of the Paris-based UVS International, predicted that the civil UAV market would reach EUR100 million (USD129.6 million) annually by 2010, increasing to EUR270 million after 2015.
Policy recommendations
Two major government/industry groups - one in the US and the other in Europe - are developing UAV policy recommendations. In the US, this is being undertaken by RTCA Special Committee (SC) 203, which was established in 2004 and charged with developing preliminary civil aviation standards for generic Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS which includes airborne and ground elements), plus Command, Control and Communications (C3) and Detect, Sense and Avoid (DSA) technologies.
The European Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) organisation is a similar government/industry body, which established its Working Group (WG) 73 in January 2006, to review UAV operational aspects in European airspace. Chaired by a Eurocontrol official and with an FAA representative as its deputy chairman, WG-73 has parallel objectives to RTCA's SC-203, and both organisations are committed to harmonise their outputs. To that end, the two groups were to hold their first joint conference in Florida in January 2007, with the intention of holding further joint meetings on a regular basis.
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© 2007 Jane's Information Group
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