A Case for Optionally Piloted Vehicle Research and Development

Abstract

Integrating routine and legitimate Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) flight into the National Airspace System (NAS) may face too many public, safety and regulatory barriers to move forward without a significantly larger operational database. This paper presents a means of enhancing this database by implementing an Optionally Piloted Vehicle (OPV) research model that can potentially move the UAS agenda ahead by providing platform alternatives for autonomous operations. In fact, the OPV might be the only means of addressing this issue in the foreseeable future. Current UAS flight operations in the NAS may be way too small to build a statistically robust database. This approach has the potential to accrue sufficient data to formulate meaningful UAS policies and at the same time mitigate safety concerns while performing these OPV operations on national test ranges and in selected controlled airspace. Adam Aircraft A-700 business jet along with two remote pilot control systems form the foundation for this work. One of these ground-based control systems would be used to pilot the aircraft when the OPV is in an unmanned mode of operation. However, these systems are compact and transportable, so much so that the second system is placed on board the OPV itself. Control of the A-700 OPV in the unmanned mode may be toggled between the two control systems and their pilots. In other words, while the aircraft is flying in the 'unmanned' mode, it can be remotely controlled by the OPV on-board pilot with a ground backup or co-pilot. This process is referred to as 'OPV echoplexing.' Selected technical details of the aircraft, the avionics, the remote pilot control systems and the overall configuration are summarized in this paper. OPVs and in particular OPV echoplexing may be a unique way of transitioning UAS flight into the NAS without major disruptions to air traffic operations.