Drones in Domestic Skies? They're in Demand for Rescue And Surveillance Missions, But Critics Question Safety
By JONATHAN KARP and ANDY PASZTOR Wall Street Journal August 7, 2006; Page B1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115491642950528436.html?mod=hps_us_editors_picks After Hurricane Katrina tore through the Gulf Coast last year, military and local officials urgently requested unmanned surveillance planes for search and rescue missions. The drones were delivered, but aviation authorities kept them on the ground out of concern about mixing drones with manned aircraft in the crowded skies over New Orleans. Eventually, some made it aloft, strapped beneath helicopters. One company settled for mounting a camera-equipped drone atop a 53-story building and feeding its video of flooding and vandalism to troops below. "A lot of lives might have been saved had we been able to use [drones]," says David Vos, whose Athena Technologies Inc. makes navigation systems for unmanned planes. "In Iraq, drones track the enemy, but we weren't able to track our own people in trees or on roofs to save them." [Predator-B unmanned planes have been used for surveillance on the U.S.-Mexico border.] Predator-B unmanned planes have been used for surveillance on the U.S.-Mexico border. After distinguished service in war zones in recent years, unmanned planes are hitting turbulence as they battle to join airliners and weekend pilots in America's civilian skies. Drones face regulatory, safety and technological hurdles -- even though demand for them is burgeoning. Government agencies want them for disaster relief, border surveillance and wildfire fighting, while private companies hope to one day use drones for a wide variety of tasks, such as inspecting pipelines and spraying pesticides on farms. But some experts are concerned that drones pose safety hazards to manned flights, and want rules in place to govern their use. "Technology in this area is moving way ahead of regulations," says Richard Healing, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. Unmanned aerial vehicles, popularly known as UAVs, come in many varieties, from micro-drones that fit in a person's hand to models as large as a small airliner. Some can fly as fast as a fighter jet. Their cost ranges from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions. Some are flown remotely by ground-based pilots who steer with joysticks, using live camera views from the plane and flight data from an onboard computer. Others fly autonomously, following programmed flight paths, although humans are able to intervene. Currently, the Federal Aviation Administration keeps drones confined to relatively small corridors of domestic airspace, segregated from other aircraft, whose pilots have advance warning of their presence. The FAA recently blocked police departments in North Carolina and California from deploying small drones. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had hoped to test them in tracking suspects and providing real-time video of sensitive situations, such as hostage incidents, without the noise and intrusion of helicopters. Such police programs have been stymied because there weren't FAA guidelines for the rapid deployment of drones in domestic airspace, or the means to get quick approval for flights. Critics fear that the proliferation of drones will endanger private and commercial planes, and they want the FAA to keep taking a cautious, go-slow approach. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which represents recreational fliers of manned aircraft, frets that the FAA already is setting aside too much airspace for drones flown by government agencies, and is concerned about its members' safety should these pilots stray into the growing patches of airspace where drones are allowed. Before UAVs can freely share the skies with manned planes, the FAA aims to resolve two basic safety issues: drones must be able to see and avoid nearby aircraft, and there must be back-up communications and control systems to cope with emergencies. Drone champions and skeptics agree that these safeguards are necessary before unmanned-plane operators will be able to file a flight plan and take off, just like pilots of conventional planes do today. "We are a long way from there," says Nick Sabatini, the FAA's top safety official. "We recognize the avalanche of demand that is upon us, but we will not compromise safety." Unmanned planes have proved invaluable in military operations, but their accident rate has added to domestic air-safety concerns. Predators, 27-foot-long propeller-driven planes which are among the biggest and best known drones in the Air Force, are used daily in Iraq and Afghanistan to track enemy targets with high-powered cameras and infrared sensors. Predators feed images to pilots on the ground or troops and are also equipped with missiles for their own attack missions. A recent report by the Congressional Research Service said their accident rate is 100 times that of manned aircraft, and noted that of 135 Predator unmanned surveillance-and-attack planes delivered and used in military operations, 50 have been lost and 34 more have had serious accidents. To be sure, combat is different from commercial flight, but Air Force officials say that all of the crashes so far were the result of malfunctions or errors by pilots who are often as far away as Nevada and lack the sensation of being in the cockpit. In April, the Department of Homeland Security's first Predator crashed in the Arizona desert during a border-patrol flight. Critics, led by the private-pilots lobby, seized on the accident to argue that unmanned planes must meet the same safety standards as manned aircraft. A preliminary accident report by the National Transportation Safety Board cited pilot error as the probable cause of the crash of the Predator, which was a newer and more expensive model than those in the Air Force's fleet. Investigators also found that the flight-control system unique to remotely piloted planes was a contributing factor: The pilot cut off the fuel supply by mistake while transferring control of the plane from one console to another. Predator's manufacturer, closely held General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., is due to deliver a second drone to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency this month so it can resume flights along the Mexico frontier. In more than six months of service, the Predator's surveillance aided in the arrest of nearly 2,000 illegal immigrants and the seizure of four tons of marijuana, border officials say. Working with the Air Force, General Atomics is planning tests that it hopes will make headway in meeting the FAA's requirements. In addition to surveillance sensors that generally are aimed at the ground, Predators currently have a nose camera that gives the pilot operating the drone from the ground a narrow, 30-degree forward view. The tests involve a drone equipped with cameras that broaden the peripheral "cockpit" vision to 220 degrees. For now, the FAA is sticking to a cautious approach in approving drone flights. Agreeing on rules to open the skies is expected to take the FAA, Pentagon and industry groups at least three years. Even then, industry officials say, only unmanned planes with advanced autopilots and fail-safe systems will likely be allowed near populated areas. There has been some change in attitude, however. Amid a new hurricane season, the Air Force said last week that the FAA has finally cleared the way for Predator drones to be used in disaster relief. The Air Force said there is now a process to authorize specific flights within hours of a request. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
