UAV integration into the national airspace: Introduction

Abstract

UAV Integration into the National Airspace reviews and presents policies, procedures, and requirements for manned aviation and relates them to existing and under development equivalent policies and requirements for unmanned aviation. Integration of unmanned aviation into the (any) national airspace requires, again, that “UAVs function as if there were a human pilot onboard” This requirement and restriction dictates that equivalent levels of safety (ELOS) must be derived for unmanned aviation (depending on the UAV classification), in addition to reliability and fault tolerance requirements. The major deviation from manned aviation requirements is that a controlled crash may be allowed for UAVs provided that human lives are not endangered and that collateral damage is minimized.