FAA readying drone test programme

The FAA is soliciting public comment on the selection of test sites in the agency's ongoing effort to integrate unmanned air vehicles (UAV) into national airspace. The FY2013 re-authorization, the Congressional funding bill that keeps the FAA running, mandates that the organization set up six UAV test sites by early February, 2013."What we're trying to do right now is get public comment," says the FAA. "We're saying, ok, here's how we figure things should work. Are we right, should we add anything else?"

Neither the test regime nor the test site locations have been decided, but language within the bill stipulates that the test programme will run for five years. UAVs operating in US airspace are restricted to small operating areas set aside specifically for their use. While heavy UAV users include the Department of Defense, various law enforcement agencies and research institutions, stringent airspace regulations prevent the commercial operations long forecast for unmanned aircraft.

The FY2013 FAA reauthorisation bill mandates that the agency draw up a comprehensive plan to integrate UAVs into the national airspace within 270 days of enactment, or September 2013. A proposed rulemaking plan for UAVs weighing under 2kg (4.4lb), operated by government or law enforcement entities, is due "in late spring."

Other language in the reauthorisation states that UAVs are to be integrated into national airspace by September, 2015, but details remain open for interpretation.
"The act mandates that we have safe integration, not full integration, into the NAS by 2015," says the FAA.

Flight Global

Students Designing Supersonic Drone

School projects don't usually have the term supersonic cruise missile in their synopses, but engineering students at the Busemann Advanced Concepts Lab at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU) are helping to design, build and commercialize a compact jet engine designed to power supersonic unmanned aerial systems. Cruise missiles are among the potential uses for the L-FX00, which their professor Ryan Starkey calls "a high-efficiency, lubrication-free turbojet engine for unmanned aircraft" on his company website. At first, however, the class is planning to build a 110-pound airframe called the GOJETT as the first mount for the engine and hope to fly it at Mach 1.4 in 2013. The prototype will cost from $50,000 to $100,000. From there, Starkey says, the commercial and military potential is enormous.

Starkey told the Longmont Times-Call supersonic drones could be used for everything from surveillance to first response in the case of chemical or biological attack to sniff out the danger. The engine "promises reduced engine weight and higher fuel efficiency and longer time-between-overhaul than turbojet engines on the market with similar thrust output," he claims. The project has the attention of Army, Navy, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and NASA, and Starkey said his new company, Starkey Aerospace, will hire CU students as the project becomes commercial.

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