Aerospace
the academic route as a loophole to try and develop technology in anticipation of the skies opening up in 2015. Without this, they have to fall back on traditional access techniques like rope access, scaffolding and ‘cherry pickers’.
“This means that you have to shut the refinery down and let it cool off for a flare inspection. With drones, you can inspect the flare in operation so you do not have to shut down production. This saves around $2 million of lost production for a two-day inspection which would otherwise last for seven days.”
Cessna-sized drones
Roberts has observed some opening of airspace in Alaska, where ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell are experimenting with the use of large Cessna-sized drones like the Diamond D42 or Boeing ScanEagle. Their longer flight durations also allow them to perform ice flow and environmental monitoring surveys, but they can weigh a few tonnes.
T
Cyberhawk drones are under 2kg in weight including cameras and equipment, and under one metre in length, we cannot fly beyond visual line-of-sight (VLoS) which is roughly 250 metres. This means that it has to be able to see the drone at all times to comply with the permissions from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) or other countries’ aviation authorities.
In the UK, the company standing flight permission from the CAA which allows certain types of flight with the UK airspace, but before it flies it has to check the airspace map to make sure there are no particular restrictions, for example near a military base, airport or place of environmental concern.
In the rest of Europe, it has worked in Italy, German, Holland and France for example, and again specific flight permission has to be obtained from each country’s civil and defence aviation authorities. It cannot currently fly in Belgium because their rules do not permit
Commission gives the nod to civil UAV
he European Commission
conducted a broad
stakeholders’ consultation between 2009 and 2012, which resulted in three major initiatives having been launched. Published in September 2012, ‘Towards a European strategy for the development of civil applications of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS)’ reports the outcomes of this consultation. The main conclusions
were that RPAS present an important potential for the development of innovative civil applications by creating jobs and achieving useful
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tasks. To unleash this potential the first priority is to achieve a safe integration of RPAS into the European air system as soon as possible. This requires the development of appropriate technologies and the implementation of the necessary aviation regulation at EU and national levels. Issues like privacy and data protection or insurance must also be addressed. It also requires increased co-ordination between all relevant actors including the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), national civil aviation authorities, the European Organisation for
Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE), Eurocontrol and the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS), and between regulatory and technological developments.
Given the urgency
to achieve RPAS safe integration into the civil airspace in view of the potential economic and social benefits of such applications, the UAS Panel called upon the European Commission to take the lead in the development of a Roadmap for safe RPAS integration into European Air System – the RPAS Roadmap. ●
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