Civil UAVs Still A Distant Prospect

holy_calamity writes "The aerospace industry has failed to obtain the radio frequencies that would allow the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in civil airspace, New Scientist reports. It will be 2011 before it can even begin to lobby for space on the radio spectrum. What's more, no national aviation authority in the world will allow civil UAVs without a system for avoiding other aircraft. And no firm has even started development of one. Has the industry cheated us of the benefits of civil UAVs by focussing on the demands of the military?" From the article: "On the brighter side, last week the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization, based in Montreal, Canada, said its navigation experts would meet in early 2007 to consider regulations for UAVs in civil airspace. That could be a step towards internationally agreed rules for how UAVs should operate. Even if the UN body makes rapid progress, however, it will be meaningless unless the industry can obtain the necessary frequencies to control the planes and feed images and other sensor data back to base."

Comments

Star One

[HTH NE1]

What's more, no national aviation authority in the world will allow civil UAVs without a system for avoiding other aircraft.

"Keldan Control, Keldan Control, this is Nova Queen on primary approach zero-four-zero. Request orbital entry clearance." [beep]

"Nova Queen, Nova Queen, this is Keldan control. Maintain zero-four-zero. Orbital entry is clear." [beep]

"Keldan Control, this is Nova Queen. I have an unidentified trace on zero-four-zero." [beep]

"Nova Queen, this is Keldan Control. Maintain zero-four-zero and switch to Computer Flight Coordination." [beep]

"Switching to CFC, maintaining zero-four-zero." [beep]
[pause]
"That ship is still coming at us." [beep]

"Nova Queen, this is Keldan Control. The ship is an unmanned ore carrier on Computer Flight Coordination." [beep]

"I hope you're sure about that, Keldan; it's still on zero-four-zero." [beep]

"Nova Queen, computer control is confirmed. No problem." [beep]

"You know that and I know that, but does the computer know that?" [beep]

"It'll switch vectors any time now. Relax." [beep]

"I'll relax when it gets that ship off zero-four-zero." [beep]

"It will." [beep]

"Keldan Control, I have four thousand passengers on this ship and that ore carrier is still on zero-four-zero!" [beep]

"Computer flight coordination doesn't make errors." [beep]

"To hell with that! Do something, Keldan; that thing is coming straight at us!" [beep]
"Keldan Control!" [beep]

"Nova Queen! Switch to manual control! Engage emergency boosters and abort zero-four-zero! Confirm please!" [beep]

"I can see it! My God, it's too late!"

"Nova Queen, Nova Queen, this is Keldan Control, do you copy?" [beep]
"Nova Queen, Nova Queen, come in please!" [beep]

Thank God.

[Shadow Wrought]

The US is one of the last countries that still has General Aviation. The airlines have been trying to gut it for years, post 9/11 regulations have done all they can to limit what pilots can do, and now we have UAVs. The only way to make UAVs "safe" from collisions will likely be to force everyone to fly under positive ATC control. If you have never flown low and slow in a Cub, do it now while you still can.

No stupid questions, but some are silly.

[Roadkills-R-Us]

``Has the industry cheated us of the benefits of civil UAVs by focussing on the demands of the military?''

No, the industry was created pretty much ex niholo by its customers. Said customers were the military. Nobody else was thinking ahead far enough to anticipate this at this time. So blame whomever you like, but include yourself in there for not being any smarter than everyone else in the governments who didn't forsee it and start planning for it before we knew when it would be viable.