Experts seek solutions in sharing airspace between airliners, drones

The unmanned aerial system test facility in New York is working on sense-and-avoid technology that could help commercial airliners detect and avoid drones that invade their airspace.

The issue of conflicts between airliners and unmanned aerial vehicles was addressed Sunday during a preconference presentation before the 20th annual Boyd Group International Aviation Forecast Summit at Bellagio.

More than 400 airline, airport and aircraft manufacturing professionals are in Las Vegas for the two-day conference that will feature presentations by 21 airlines and five manufacturers. The event is co-sponsored by McCarran International Airport and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Lawrence Brinker, executive director of the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR), said avoidance systems are under development, but the issue is complicated by the possible presence of "uncooperative aircraft" near an airliner.

Near-misses between drones and commercial airliners is a growing problem with a number of pilots reporting unmanned aircraft near their planes.

Brinker's group is looking at avoidance systems similar to airborne collision avoidance systems currently used in many aircraft.

New York-based NUAIR is among six unmanned aerial system test facilities authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration in late 2013. Nevada also was designated as a test site.

Brinker said his group, which is testing a wide variety of unmanned vehicles, including small helicopters and twin-engine fixed-wing aircraft in addition to small quadcopters, also is testing "geofencing" technology that would block drones from flying into unauthorized airspace.

Brinker is optimistic that drones someday will fly with commercial carriers and general aviation.

"Integration is possible," Brinker told about 100 people gathered for the preconference sessions. "The knuckleheads that operate without regard to the safety of general aviation are the ones we have to figure out a solution for."

The FAA at one time had hoped to integrate drones into commercial airspace by fall, but the rule-making process has been extended on regulations pertaining to unmanned aerial systems. Brinker said regulators received 45,000 comments on proposed rules and he doesn't expect rules to be considered for final adoption until early 2016.

In an earlier session, a panel discussed a growing pilot shortage.

Boyd researchers have determined that aircraft manufacturers will produce 7,550 new planes in the next 20 years requiring 88,000 pilots. Nowhere is the problem more acute than for regional carriers, small airlines with small aircraft operating in small communities.

In 2013, the Federal Aviation Administration adopted new regulations requiring first officers to have 1,500 flight hours to receive their airline transport pilot certificates. Previously, the agency required 250 hours of experience.

The new regulation was approved in the wake of the crash of a Colgan Air flight in February 2009 that killed the flight crew and 49 passengers and a person on the ground in northern New York.

It usually takes several years for a student pilot to log 1,500 hours. The pilot shortage is exacerbated by a rash of retirements. The FAA changed its mandatory pilot retirement age from 60 to 65 in 2007, but the pool is now shrinking, and about 500 commercial pilots retire every month.

"(The shortage) is real and it's fast," said Chuck Howell, CEO of Great Lakes Airlines, who said the shortage is drastically affecting regional carriers.

The reason: Major airlines recruit their pilots from regional carriers. In addition, the military, a reliable source of experienced pilots, is doing more flying with unmanned aerial systems and offering greater incentives to retain pilots.

Howell said he's concerned that policymakers won't react to the problem before it's too late.

"It may not be addressed until some congressman loses air service to his district because the airline can no longer fly there," he said.

Another Sunday session addressed the issue of privatizing the nation's air traffic control system.

Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow him: @RickVelotta