Army receives FAA approval to fly unmanned aircraft in national airspace.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: UNMANNED AVIATION

DENVER -- The Federal Aviation Administration has granted the Army permission to fly unmanned aircraft in national airspace at night using ground-based radar and GPS systems to avoid civilian and commercial traffic.

"This is a landmark event," said Col. Gregory Gonzalez, project manager for Army unmanned aircraft systems.

The armed services, now heavily reliant on unmanned aircraft, have enjoyed the use of open airspace overseas to fly their drones. But when the wars end, they will lose those privileges.

"When we bring hundreds of aircraft back, we'll have to fly in national airspace in order to train all the units to keep them proficient to protect our country in any other contingency that comes along," Gonzalez told reporters at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference.

The FAA has long been wary of opening up national airspace to remotely piloted aircraft--a technology it perceives as a potential threat to civilian carriers because the operators who control the flights through video screens have limited fields of view. If operators lose connectivity with the aircraft, no one is on board to steer the plane to safety.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The Navy on Aug. 2 lost communications with a robotic Fire Scout helicopter that had taken off from the Patuxent River testing ground in Maryland. It flew toward Washington, D.C., and broached restricted airspace before operators regained control. The North American Aerospace Defense Command was about to scramble F-16 fighters to intercept the chopper, which came within 40 miles of the nation's capital. NORAD's commander, Navy Adm. Sandy Winnefeld, who also heads U.S. Northern Command, said officials were considering possible options for stopping the runaway chopper, including shooting it down, when they received word that it was back under control.

In anticipation of flying UAS training missions in national airspace, the Army has been developing a ground-based sense-and-avoid capability to prevent mishaps. The technology relies on radar and software that has been integrated into UAS ground control stations rather than placed on board the aircraft.

The "zero-conflict airspace" system is being...