Businesses want to use drones — unmanned aircraft controlled by computer programs or remote control — for a variety of purposes, including agriculture, filmmaking, inspections, marketing, search and rescue efforts and even delivery.
News of Amazon's experiments with drone delivery has helped the public understand the potential of the industry in Virginia, State Secretary of Technology Karen Jackson said. Hampton Roads, with its history in unmanned aviation with NASA Langley, NASA Wallops and the military, could become a commercial hub for the growing industry.
"When you start talking about a multidisciplinary industry, this is it. And it's brand new," Jackson said. "We want to be in on the ground floor."
That's why Virginia pursued the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, a team that includes Maryland and New Jersey that was assembled for Virginia Tech's unmanned aerial systems (UAS) testing program. The Federal Aviation Administration gave it the operational green light in August. Congress asked the FAA two years ago to authorize six test sites to collect information for integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace. A plan for integration is due by September 2015.
Businesses have grown frustrated by the agency's delays in creating rules for unmanned aircraft, as the FAA has restricted flying drones for commercial purposes. But now through the aviation partnership, Hampton Roads businesses have a pathway to get FAA permission for test flights.
"There are so many people calling us and asking us, 'Can we get out there and fly?'" said Jon Greene, the partnership's acting associate director for Virginia.
While Virginia Tech has been testing unmanned aircraft at Kentland Farm near Blacksburg, the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership doesn't have one assigned test site. The program plans to have multiple "launch and recovery" sites within Virginia, including around Hampton Roads, Greene said.
The partnership initially wants to fly where people aren't, and has been looking at rural areas of Suffolk, Wakefield and over the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean, Greene said. The idea is to be remote for safety but close enough to the Defense Department industry, NASA and possibly new companies in the more urban areas of Hampton Roads.
The partnership has to apply for FAA authorization for each location and aircraft and plans to start flying "low and slow," he said. Eventually, by using the same sites for particular uses, the program would like to ask the FAA for designated launch and recovery sites, Greene said.
NASA Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore has been in talks with the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership to serve as a launch site, said NASA Wallops Deputy Director Bruce Underwood. The facility has experience working with government contractors in unmanned systems and has been launching NASA's Global Hawk autonomous aircraft to study hurricanes in the Atlantic.
While the two main runways at NASA Wallops — at more than 8,000 feet long — can accommodate larger drones, a nearby 3,000-foot runway planned on Wallops Island would accommodate smaller and medium-sized drones, said Zigmond Leszczynski, deputy executive director of the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority. Earlier this year, state lawmakers approved $5.8 million in funding toward finishing the relocation of a NASA runway to be used as an unmanned aircraft systems test range. He expects the runway to be operational by the end of 2015.
"We have folks lined up already so when this runway is complete, we can start flying," Leszczynski said.
So far, the FAA has granted the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership seven certificates of authorization at two different sites, including Kentland Farm and one commercial project on undisclosed private land, Greene said. The goal is to be as open as possible about where the drones are flying, he added.
For the FAA, the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership is providing data on how drones are being used, safety mechanisms and technical flight issues such as what happens when the aircraft loses power or how it might sense and avoid other aircraft or objects. For businesses, the program helps develop a track record to convince the FAA that those companies can fly safely. The partnership sets the safety standards and procedures for the tests, Greene said.
York County-based AVID (Air Vehicle Integrated Design) got FAA authorization through the partnership to test a small flying robot.
"It's kind of a "Brave New World"-type thing. You've got so many things you can do," AVID chief technical officer Paul Gelhausen said, adding, "It's really aerial robotics."
The company, which maintains an office in Blacksburg, plans on testing its 10-inch-wide, 3-pound, electric-ducted-fan drone. The "EDF-8" can be equipped with sensors for chemical detection or with a camera for video surveillance or industrial inspections, he said. Gelhausen believes the smaller drone can operate in urban areas or indoors, like trying to find the source of a fire or inspecting the inner walls of ship tanks.
AVID also has a license agreement with Honeywell Aerospace to sell 20-pound, gasoline-powered T-Hawk "micro air vehicles." The T-Hawk, designed in part by AVID, has been used to support soldiers with reconnaissance in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But until the FAA comes out with commercial rules for drones, AVID can't sell and eventually produce drones in York County, he said. Companies want to know particulars, like weight limits for specific uses. Delays in the rule-making have also cost AVID investment in finishing the EDF-8, Gelhausen said. He agrees with licensing commercial drone users but would like some rules to work by. The FAA plans to publish a proposed rule for small unmanned aircraft under 55 pounds later this year.
"I'm stalled from actually building a constructive industry," Gelhausen, who worked at NASA for 22 years, said. "When the FAA makes their rules, we will start building vehicles next door."
Robert Fitzgerald, CEO and principal of The Bosh Group in Newport News, understands the frustration but sees the FAA's challenge of managing a complex, busy U.S. airspace.
When budget cuts and sequestration reared its ugly head, Fitzgerald wanted to diversify from government contracting with Bosh Global Services, which has provided drone systems support and training for about 10 years. In 2012, the Bosh Group acquired Newport News-based Emmen Aerospace, a custom military drone supplier, and rebranded it as Bosh Technologies with the goal of pursuing commercial markets.
The Bosh Group also launched a Digital Harvest company that equips drones with sensors and data collection systems for agriculture.
"Agriculture, we think, is going to be the big success for unmanned aircraft in the early years," Fitzgerald said.
Digital Harvest's drone sensors and multispectral imager can help farmers see where bugs are attacking plants or where crops need more water, Fitzgerald said. Drones can then also allow for more efficient, targeted crop dusting and chemical applications on farms.
Bosh, which has been testing with North Carolina State researchers, is pursuing multiple FAA authorizations for testing through the Virginia Tech partnership. Once the FAA opens up airspace for commercial use, the Bosh Group anticipates making custom commercial drones as well as providing training and data-collection services for hire, said spokeswoman Angela Costello.
"There's really a very exciting world ahead of us. You see this convergence of technologies," said Dave Hinton, deputy director for the research and technology portfolio at NASA Langley Research Center. "You're going to see the vehicles mature as we develop the means to access airspace. Standards are going to become very important."
NASA Langley in Hampton is poised to support the partnership's activities with its expertise and has already helped in providing flight range safety procedures, Hinton said. In addition to its long history of flight test research, NASA Langley has been using small unmanned aircraft to test the algorithms for autonomous systems or gain insight for pilot simulations, control systems and training, he said.
NASA Langley engineers are also experimenting with aircraft composition, including a hybrid vertical-takeoff plane that hovers like a helicopter. Called Greased Lightning, the prototype is a drone and has potential for package delivery, Hinton said. Test flights are planned this fall.
Hinton views the development of unmanned systems much like how computers have evolved. The technology has become so miniaturized and affordable that there's even a hobbyist movement to make them.
"You put that in the hands of even a small company and wow, they can start doing things you never dreamed of," Hinton said.
- Source: http://www.dailypress.com
York County-based AVID would like to test its electric ducted-fan drone, through the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership's testing program with Virginia Tech. Courtesy of AVID (courtesy avid, Daily Press / September 3, 2014)
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