Abstract
The subject of investigation are unmanned aircraft lighter than 150kg under control by national aviation authorities and therefore prudently requiring harmonized individual state regulations. Originated from a general premise that the unmanned aircraft regulations should evolve from the existing standards for manned aircraft of equivalent class or category, the light fixed wing unmanned aircraft equivalence to the manned aircraft is defined in the form of sets of equivalency and non-equivalency based on the established administrative type of methodology of impact kinetic energy comparison. The basic flight characteristics of the existing operational light fixed wing unmanned aircraft are analyzed assuring proper input for determination of the more realistic unmanned aircraft impact kinetic energy in controlled and uncontrolled flight into terrain crash scenarios used for the evaluation of established methodology adequacy for equivalence determination. It is shown in the paper that determination of the unmanned aircraft equivalency to the manned aircraft should not be based on the unmanned aircraft maximum take-off mass nor their airspeed range alone. KEYWORDS: light unmanned aircraft, impact kinetic energy, hazard potential, classification
Highlights
In the foreseeable future it can be expected that the most numerous unmanned aircraft (UA) will be those with operational mass considerably less than 150kg [7]
The relevant UA impact speed range follows from two UA crash scenarios: a) controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) in level flight at an operational airspeed v with an impact that arises prior to the emergency landing attempt, b) uncontrolled flight into terrain (UFIT) in the worst case scenario of a vertical dive commenced at operational airspeed v
The UA impact energy potential analysis provides an evidence that the existing set of operational fixed wing UA weighing less than 150kg poses significant level of impact kinetic energy either in the CFIT (Figure 3) or UFIT (Figure 7) crash scenario
Summary
In the foreseeable future it can be expected that the most numerous unmanned aircraft (UA) will be those with operational mass considerably less than 150kg [7]. Insufficient experience regarding UA reliability, the inability to define UA mishap probability, and the lack of knowledge about the hazardousness of a UA mishap, and so the complex risk associated with UA flight operations, has led to authorities placing restrictions on where and how UAs are operated These restrictions include segregating UA operations from other airspace users and denying them the airspace above populated areas for the protection of people on the ground [2, 5, 8, 9, 12]. The problem addressed is: “How to establish equivalence between unmanned aircraft weighing less than 150kg and mainly, but not exclusively, heavier manned aircraft?” Another level of basically the same problem is the definition of classificatory limits for delineation of a wide group of UA weighing up to 150kg and having potentially significantly different hazard to the third parties footprint Such a subclassification should facilitate the idea of increasingly demanding. The flight characteristics of the existing operational fixed-wing UA systems weighing less than 150kg are analysed assuring the input for determination of the realistic UA impact kinetic energy in controlled and uncontrolled flight into terrain crash scenarios used for the evaluation of the methodological adequacy for equivalence determination
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