The agency on Wednesday approved drone parcel delivery operator and UPS subsidiary Flight Forward and avionics provider uAvionix for UAS operations beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) of a remote pilot, opening the door to longer flights, new markets, and fewer restrictions on ground personnel. The authorizations follow the FAA’s granting of similar permissions to drone inspection provider Phoenix Air Unmanned (PAU) in August.

Flight Forward, uAvionix, PAU, and a fourth firm, medical drone delivery provider Zipline, initially requested BVLOS exemptions earlier this year. Their applications were published in the Federal Register for comment in May, drawing feedback from industry trade associations, aviation groups, and even rival companies. Zipline’s approval is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, the FAA told FLYING.

“The FAA is focused on developing standard rules to make BVLOS operations routine, scalable and economically viable,” the agency said in its announcement. “The agency chartered the BVLOS Aviation Rulemaking Committee on June 9, 2021, to provide safety recommendations to the FAA. We are reviewing their final report. The FAA’s long-term goal is to safely integrate drones into the National Airspace System rather than set aside separate airspace exclusively for drones.”

With the new authorizations, the FAA hopes to collect data that will inform its proposed rule on UAS BVLOS operations, also published in the Federal Register in May along with the four exemption requests. 

The agency also told FLYING companies that can recreate the approved firms’ operational conditions will now be able to obtain BVLOS approvals more quickly. It said it selected the four companies because each sought BVLOS waivers for different use cases: parcel delivery (Flight Forward), medical delivery (Zipline), inspections (PAU), and flight systems development (uAvionix).

Each use case opens a path to exemptions for companies with similar operations, allowing them to use the waivers as models for their own operations. For example, a company looking to deliver small packages might build around Flight Forward’s business.

“Our goal is to work towards summary grants as we continue towards rulemaking,” said David Boulter, FAA associate administrator for aviation safety, at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Summary grants are essentially streamlined authorizations for “copycat” companies with similar infrastructure, aircraft, and technology to those who have already been approved.

What’s in the Approvals?

Flight Forward’s exemption authorizes the firm to conduct BVLOS small parcel deliveries using drone manufacturer Matternet’s M2 UAS. In lieu of visual observers—ground personnel stationed along the flight path to maintain a line of sight with the drone during flight—the company will now deploy remote operation centers across its network, using them to facilitate deliveries from tens or even hundreds of miles away.

The FAA revised some of Flight Forward’s requests relating to minimum safe altitudes, VFR visibility requirements, and pilot-in-command qualifications. But the company’s application was largely accepted as submitted.

The same can be said of uAvionix, which has now been approved to test its detect-and-avoid technology on a custom UAS flying BVLOS. The UAS, called Rapace, has a maximum takeoff weight of 26.5 pounds and was granted a special airworthiness certificate—experimental class (SAC-EC) by the FAA. It includes in-house avionics, command-and-control radios, autopilot systems, and positioning sensors from uAvionix.

The company will fly Rapace within the Vantis Network, North Dakota’s statewide UAS BVLOS program, with partners such as Thales to help its customers better understand BVLOS operations and waivers.

“The concept here is that the program team works out the ‘recipe’ for BVLOS exemptions, which are repeatable by other operators in the future,” Christian Ramsey, managing director of uAvionix, told FLYING in May. “In the end, this exemption isn’t about our operations…It’s about trailblazing and developing an infrastructure that others can use to achieve their own operational and business goals.”

UAvionix will need a Letter of Authorization from the FAA to conduct operations that rely on UAS traffic management (UTM) or third-party service providers. Otherwise, its requests were largely approved with minor conditions and limitations.

Similarly, PAU has been authorized to fly the SwissDrones SDO 50 V2 unmanned helicopter for BVLOS aerial photography, surveying, and powerline and pipeline patrol and inspection. Operations are permitted below 400 feet above certain roads and in sparsely populated areas beneath preplanned flight paths.

The approval builds on the company’s Part 107 waiver, issued in March, for BVLOS operations with aircraft under 55 pounds. That permission did not cover the SVO 50 V2, which weighs about 190 pounds. Like Flight Forward and uAvionix, PAU’s requests were largely approved with some restrictions.

Zipline’s request is under review, but the firm is expected to join its fellow applicants in the coming weeks. It seeks to replace visual observers with its patented acoustic detect-and-avoid system (DAA) and other onboard systems—unlike Flight Forward, it would eliminate the use of ground personnel almost entirely.

The authorizations are clearly a welcome development for Flight Forward, uAvionix, and PAU. But not everyone supported them. A few industry groups repeatedly popped up in the comments to oppose the approvals, namely the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA), and drone connectivity solutions provider ElSight. They worried BVLOS flights could pose hazards to low-altitude manned aircraft.

The FAA, however, countered that the approvals are in the public interest. They will allow the agency to gather information on BVLOS operations as it works toward a final rule that will ultimately shape the UAS industry for years—and potentially decades—to come.

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The post FAA Approves Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations for 3 UAS Firms appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

John Macready, an Army test pilot who flew fighters in World War I, was at the controls. In the rear cockpit was Etienne Dormoy, a research engineer with the Army Signal Corps who had modified the Jenny for this experimental assignment.

As Macready skimmed the treetops, Dormoy turned a crank on a metal hopper bolted to the side of the fuselage, releasing lead arsenate dust. After six passes, the job was done, the grove was saved, and an industry called “crop dusting” was born.

• READ MORE: Thrush Launches Firefighting-Convertible Cropduster

That industry, now known as agricultural aviation or aerial application, moved along an interesting path to advance from Macready and Dormoy’s 150-hp Jenny with a 32-gallon hopper to modern machines like the Air Tractor AT-802A, whose turbine engine generates 1,295 hp—enough to lift the load induced by its 800-gallon hopper.

While this tale of evolution in some ways resembles that of other aviation segments, like airlines, business and military aircraft, it is sprinkled with watershed moments worth particular attention.

Dusting Catches On

Crop dusting grew rapidly following the Troy, Ohio, experiment, with many pilots adapting existing aircraft for the task. Huff-Daland, an aircraft company that supplied trainers for the military, in the early 1920s designed a biplane especially for crop dusting, which they nicknamed The Puffer. The company formed an agricultural division called Huff-Daland Dusters, and began commercial dusting operations with its specialized airplanes in 1925, according to the National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA).

At the time, the company’s fleet of 18 aircraft was the largest privately owned fleet in the world, according to Delta Air Lines. Huff-Daland, through a number of acquisitions, grew into Delta Air Service and, by 1945, officially became Delta Air Lines.

Enter the Stearman

The end of World War II created a breakthrough for crop dusters for a couple of reasons. First, the enormous surplus of Stearman trainers, many in like-new condition, meant they could get reliable, robust aircraft at low prices—from $250 to $875, the NAAA said. Because all of these surplus aircraft had to be modified for agricultural use, specialized companies formed to outfit airplanes with dusting and spraying equipment. This brought a degree of standardization and efficiency that helped accelerate the industry’s growth.

The 1950s: New Models, Rising Standards

A team at Texas A&M led by aircraft design legend Fred Weick built the AG-1, a prototype monoplane crop sprayer, in 1950. The following year, Leland Snow, who later developed Thrush agricultural aircraft and founded Air Tractor, rolled out his first design, the S-1. By 1953, Piper was building the Pawnee. These aircraft all shared the distinctive raised cockpit, sloped nose and low wing that became standard for ag-plane design. Indeed, industry insiders often draw parallels between the AG-1 and the latest Air Tractor.

Just as the template seemed to be set, though, aviation giant Grumman introduced its G-164 Ag-Cat, a radial-engined biplane, in 1957. It was the first agricultural airplane from a major manufacturer and it significantly raised standards for reliability and safety.

A Fragmented Industry Comes Together

In 1966, new federal regulations under Part 137 imposed new restrictions on agricultural aviation. This and a number of other factors, from the subdivision of farms into suburbs to the release a few years earlier of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring—a book that criticized pesticide use—helped drive independent-minded crop sprayers to form the National Agricultural Aviation Association, or NAAA, in late 1966.

Turbine Power Arrives

While Pratt & Whitney unveiled the first PT6 turbine engine in 1957, almost 20 years passed before the powerplants turned up on the noses of ag aircraft. According to the NAAA, the first example to fly in the U.S. was the Turbo Cat, a converted Ag-Cat that took to the air in 1976. It was about 60 percent more productive than the piston version and marked the beginning of a turbine ascendancy in crop spraying.

GPS Replaces Flaggers

Remember how expensive GPS technology was at first? In 1993, when it became commercially available, many people in agricultural aviation recognized its potential but felt the price tag, often tens of thousands of dollars, would deter most operators. However, within a year, 25 percent of the industry was using GPS, the NAAA said, mainly because it increased accuracy by a huge margin just as environmental concerns were focusing more scrutiny on crop spraying. Before GPS, workers would stand in the field with flags on long poles to guide the airplanes. They would have to lower the poles at just the right time so the airplane would not hit them.

Unlikely Pop-Culture Phenomenon

In 2013, Disney released Planes, an animated film along the lines of the 2006 film, Cars, about Dusty Crophopper, an agricultural airplane that dreams of air racing. With a sequel the following year, in which Dusty takes up aerial firefighting, the franchise arguably gave agricultural aviation its most notable screen presence since the 1959 film North By Northwest.

What About Drones?   

As agricultural aviation looks to a future of expected growing populations and shrinking farmland, it is clear that efficiency, sustainability, and cost will affect how ag pilots operate. Unmanned aircraft systems have been part of crop spraying for years, but it remains unclear how far their roles might expand and whether they will remain largely as pilot aids or lead to levels of automation that begin to squeeze pilots out of the business.

The post History of Agricultural Aviation Reveals a Series of Turning Points appeared first on FLYING Magazine.