FAA Faces Significant Barriers to Safely Integrate Unmanned Aircraft Systems Into the National Airspace System

Book excerpt: The Federal Aviation Admin. (FAA) forecasts there will be roughly 7,500 active Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the U.S. in 5 years. Concerned with the progress of integrating UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS), Congress established specific UAS provisions and deadlines for FAA in the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. This report shows that although FAA is taking steps to advance UAS operations, significant technological barriers remain in achieving safe integration, largely because current UAS have a limited ability to detect and avoid other air traffic. In addition, FAA has not established a regulatory framework for UAS integration and is also not effectively collecting and analyzing UAS safety data or managing its oversight of UAS operations. Furthermore, FAA is behind schedule in meeting most of the UAS-related provisions of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act, including the August 2014 milestone for issuing a final rule on small UAS operations. These delays will ultimately prevent FAA from meeting Congress's Sept. 2015 deadline for achieving safe UAS integration. Figures and tables. This is a print on demand report.