Re: Бъдещето на гражданската авиация: дронове, UAV и т.н.
Публикувано на: 11 Сеп 2015 14:05http://www.slate.com/articles/technolog ... lanes.html
Clear Skies Ahead
Why airline pilots aren’t all that worried about drones.
“Passenger Plane Barely Dodges Drone Above New York” cried a Time magazine headline earlier this year. How scary does that sound? And the reports of close calls between airliners and small drones keep coming. In 2013, 238 drone encounters were reported by pilots in the United States. By August of this year, that number had already hit 700. What’s behind this aerial mayhem? More and more drones, of course. One industry group says that we have already sold millions of small unmanned aircraft systems, while companies such as Amazon are lobbying government agencies to operate their own commercial fleets. The population of drones is predicted to grow 15-20 percent each year over the next five years, and the commercial use of drones may be widespread by 2017. Just this week, Norway announced that a drone collided with a “low-wing, two-seat monoplane” on Aug. 30. “The whole idea of these drones coming into conflict with other aircraft is something that I'm extremely concerned about,” Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Huerta recently told NPR. But how concerned should you be during your next flight?I called up three airline pilots who fly for three major airlines, put the question to them, and got these three replies: “It’s not terribly concerning,” says Boeing 757 pilot Helena Reidemar. “I’m not too worried about drones,” said Boeing 737 pilot Scott Maclean. Airbus A320 pilot Doug Dupuie added: “I’m pretty unconcerned, I’d say.”Considering all of the other hazards pilots have to put up with, drones apparently aren’t at the top of anybody’s list. In 2014, pilots had frickin’ laser beams shined in their eyes 4,000 times, a number that is set to increase in 2015. Then there were the usual close calls with other airplanes. Throw in hailstorms, wind shear, thunderstorms, tornadoes, ornery passengers … it’s all in a day’s work. Drones are just one more thing.Drones seem manageable when we realize that we have a national airspace system that already accommodates a great diversity of aviation operations. Aside from airlines and military flight operations, we have flight training, police helicopters, firefighting, aerial burial, crop dusting, gliding, air shows, emergency medical evacuation, hot air balloons, photography, sightseeing, skydiving, traffic watch, and of course the chance to join the mile high club. If we can accommodate both military fighter jets and civilian sex ops, most pilots feel that we can probably safely add drones to the mix.Our airspace system works by dividing up the sky so that everybody has a place to fly and a set of rules for operating within that place. On the airline side, surrounding every major airport is a designated airspace that looks like an upside-down wedding cake. As jets climb away from a large airport, they fly inside the cake. If you’re not an airliner, you stay outside of the cake unless you are specifically invited into the cake by air traffic control.The FAA already requires drones to stay below 500 feet and at least 5 miles away from any airport, which is well clear of the cake. When these rules are followed, drones and airliners enjoy safe separation from each other. So if we have this great system already in place, then why are we getting all these reports of close calls and near misses?The FAA acknowledges that one reason why we’re seeing these incidents is because we have fallen behind in ensuring that drone operators have the knowledge they need to follow the rules within the system we have worked out. Knowledge about things like navigation, airspace, aircraft performance, and weather. Here’s a pop quiz! How many public airports are there in California? If you answered 250, then you are correct. That’s probably more than you were thinking. So is there a small airport near you, and if you are unsure, do you know how to find out? (Get your free aeronautical charts here.) Many drone operators already know this stuff, but for those that don’t, the FAA will soon require that they learn, and we should see a lot of the bad behavior we see in the news go away. Randy Mumaw, a former Boeing human factors specialist who is now at NASA (where I also work), says: “The majority of drone operators will be good actors: well-intentioned people who will in large part follow the rules.” In a recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FAA seeks to require all drone pilots to demonstrate proficiency with basic aeronautical concepts. And when you’re done studying and pass the tests, you might get your own FAA pilot certificate. All in all, I’d say the FAA efforts are on point. If only we could speed them up a little …
Clear Skies Ahead
Why airline pilots aren’t all that worried about drones.
“Passenger Plane Barely Dodges Drone Above New York” cried a Time magazine headline earlier this year. How scary does that sound? And the reports of close calls between airliners and small drones keep coming. In 2013, 238 drone encounters were reported by pilots in the United States. By August of this year, that number had already hit 700. What’s behind this aerial mayhem? More and more drones, of course. One industry group says that we have already sold millions of small unmanned aircraft systems, while companies such as Amazon are lobbying government agencies to operate their own commercial fleets. The population of drones is predicted to grow 15-20 percent each year over the next five years, and the commercial use of drones may be widespread by 2017. Just this week, Norway announced that a drone collided with a “low-wing, two-seat monoplane” on Aug. 30. “The whole idea of these drones coming into conflict with other aircraft is something that I'm extremely concerned about,” Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Michael Huerta recently told NPR. But how concerned should you be during your next flight?I called up three airline pilots who fly for three major airlines, put the question to them, and got these three replies: “It’s not terribly concerning,” says Boeing 757 pilot Helena Reidemar. “I’m not too worried about drones,” said Boeing 737 pilot Scott Maclean. Airbus A320 pilot Doug Dupuie added: “I’m pretty unconcerned, I’d say.”Considering all of the other hazards pilots have to put up with, drones apparently aren’t at the top of anybody’s list. In 2014, pilots had frickin’ laser beams shined in their eyes 4,000 times, a number that is set to increase in 2015. Then there were the usual close calls with other airplanes. Throw in hailstorms, wind shear, thunderstorms, tornadoes, ornery passengers … it’s all in a day’s work. Drones are just one more thing.Drones seem manageable when we realize that we have a national airspace system that already accommodates a great diversity of aviation operations. Aside from airlines and military flight operations, we have flight training, police helicopters, firefighting, aerial burial, crop dusting, gliding, air shows, emergency medical evacuation, hot air balloons, photography, sightseeing, skydiving, traffic watch, and of course the chance to join the mile high club. If we can accommodate both military fighter jets and civilian sex ops, most pilots feel that we can probably safely add drones to the mix.Our airspace system works by dividing up the sky so that everybody has a place to fly and a set of rules for operating within that place. On the airline side, surrounding every major airport is a designated airspace that looks like an upside-down wedding cake. As jets climb away from a large airport, they fly inside the cake. If you’re not an airliner, you stay outside of the cake unless you are specifically invited into the cake by air traffic control.The FAA already requires drones to stay below 500 feet and at least 5 miles away from any airport, which is well clear of the cake. When these rules are followed, drones and airliners enjoy safe separation from each other. So if we have this great system already in place, then why are we getting all these reports of close calls and near misses?The FAA acknowledges that one reason why we’re seeing these incidents is because we have fallen behind in ensuring that drone operators have the knowledge they need to follow the rules within the system we have worked out. Knowledge about things like navigation, airspace, aircraft performance, and weather. Here’s a pop quiz! How many public airports are there in California? If you answered 250, then you are correct. That’s probably more than you were thinking. So is there a small airport near you, and if you are unsure, do you know how to find out? (Get your free aeronautical charts here.) Many drone operators already know this stuff, but for those that don’t, the FAA will soon require that they learn, and we should see a lot of the bad behavior we see in the news go away. Randy Mumaw, a former Boeing human factors specialist who is now at NASA (where I also work), says: “The majority of drone operators will be good actors: well-intentioned people who will in large part follow the rules.” In a recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the FAA seeks to require all drone pilots to demonstrate proficiency with basic aeronautical concepts. And when you’re done studying and pass the tests, you might get your own FAA pilot certificate. All in all, I’d say the FAA efforts are on point. If only we could speed them up a little …
