Standards body to recommend 'light regulation' cut-off
Aviation standards body RTCA is to recommend to the US Federal Aviation Administration where the cut-off point between fully certificated unmanned air vehicles and "lightly regulated" small UAVs should be. A "best practices" document is to be presented to the FAA at the beginning of October.
Guidance on the weight limit for small UAVs is part of RTCA's mandate to develop and recommend certification regulations for unmanned air systems operating in unsegregated airspace. In addition to airworthiness requirements for air vehicles, the standards body is developing minimum aviation system performance standards (MASPS) for the command, control and communications systems and detect, sense and avoid systems.
The FAA recently asked the RTCA to accelerate its efforts because of pressure from industry and the military, which are frustrated by the lengthy process for obtaining approval to fly UAVs in civil airspace. RTCA expects the MASPS to be completed in the "2010 plus or minus" timeframe.
European aviation standards body Eurocae, meanwhile, kicked off its equivalent effort in April, and will deliver a work plan in January next year and a UAV operations concept by February. Eurocae is expected to draw heavily on the more advanced RTCA work.
The European Aviation Safety Agency has already decided that UAVs below 150kg (330lb) will be regulated nationally, but the FAA is expected to set a lower weight limit for small vehicles, with at least one manufacturer suggesting a limit of 22.7kg. The plan is to draw up best practices for a small UAV class covering the gap between radio-control models and fully certificated vehicles.
As part of its efforts, RTCA has determined the industry must secure frequency spectrum for UAV operations at the World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC), which governs the allocation of communications frequencies. The issue will be surfaced at next year's WARC, says RTCA, with a formal application for spectrum to be assigned to UAV operations to be made at the 2010 WARC.
Source: Flight International
