Solving the BVLOS Challenge VAI advocates for safe, fair beyond-visual-line-of-sight rules. By Mark Huber By the time you read this, the FAA may well have issued its notice of proposed rulemaking for the long-awaited Part 108 of the federal aviation regulations governing beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations of unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) in the National Airspace System (NAS). Enabling UAS operations beyond the sight of their remote pilots will remove a key barrier preventing this sector of aviation from reaching its full potential. While VAI supports the full integration of UASs into the NAS, the association argues that to be successful, that integration must preserve—if not improve—the current level of safety in the NAS. While not a certainty, the proposed regulations are expected to embrace key recommendations made in the 2022 final report of the UAS BVLOS Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). Over the past two years, VAI has voiced concerns about several of the ARC’s recommendations, primarily in the areas of airspace segregation, deconfliction, and right-of-way when it comes to manned and unmanned aircraft sharing the same low-altitude airspace. The Push for BVLOS Operations The breadth and scope of the ARC’s recommendations could outpace practical enabling technology, warns Chris Martino, VAI senior director of operations and international affairs. “Commercial UASs must be operated at a level of technical maturity that enables their safe and efficient integration into the airspace,” he says. “There is a push to get these things into the air, but preserving the current level of safety for the manned aircraft that are already in that airspace is essential.” The momentum that Martino refers to is great, in part because BVLOS operations will be a turning point for enabling a dramatic expansion of commercial drone operations. “Success in aviation is closely tied to the operator’s ability to pursue economic efficiencies while keeping safety paramount,” says James Viola, VAI president and CEO. “Opening up BVLOS operations for UASs will enable more operators to do just that. Some VAI members are already leading the way by fielding mixed fleets containing both helicopters and UASs, with great results.” In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in July 2024, a coalition led by the US Chamber of Commerce that included national energy, transportation, and media organizations urged the FAA to “expeditiously issue and finalize rules to enable routine BVLOS operations to unleash innovation and the numerous benefits stemming from this type of operation.” A report from Grand View Research estimates that the US commercial UAS market, which was $4.79 billion in 2022, is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9.1% from 2023 to 2030. The McKinsey & Co. consulting firm predicts that US commercial UASs will contribute $31 billion to $46 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2026. While those numbers are estimates, the lower figure is equivalent to the combined annual revenues of helicopter manufacturers Airbus, Bell, Leonardo, and Sikorsky, according to data released by the parent companies of those OEMs. Safety in a BVLOS-Enabled Airspace Safely integrating BVLOS operations into the NAS poses enormous challenges. Some proposed solutions would change foundational assumptions about NAS operations, including each aircraft’s duty to see/sense/detect and avoid other aircraft. In a 2022 statement, Viola expressed concerns about the BVLOS ARC report, saying, “We are grateful to have been part of the ARC’s efforts but are ultimately unable to support the recommendations of the report, as they will greatly increase risk to current airspace operators.” In 2019, NASA conducted successful UAS traffic management test flights in downtown Reno, Nevada, with a suite of technologies expected to enable safe BVLOS operations. (NASA/Dominic Hart Photo) VAI’s main objections to the ARC recommendations center around the inability of most UASs to detect and avoid other aircraft. A proposal in the ARC’s final report transfers that right-of-way responsibility solely to manned aircraft, a dramatic departure from current FAA regulations. “Altering the right-of-way hierarchy is not, and never should be, a mitigation for an unmanned system’s inability to detect other aircraft in the airspace,” Viola noted. VAI’s Martino says the ARC’s recommendations for right-of-way and shielded areas, if implemented, would create safety hazards in the low-altitude airspace. Aircraft working critical missions such as air medical, aerial firefighting, and utility maintenance and patrol would all be placed at unnecessary risk. “The safety of the NAS only works if all aircraft in the system have the same responsibility to see/sense/detect and avoid all other aircraft,” he says. The risk to manned aircraft from UASs operating with a blanket right-of-way could be substantial: some low-altitude, larger commercial UASs can weigh more than 1,400 lb.—about the same as a light sport fixed-wing aircraft—while several models of manned, single-engine helicopters are in the 3,600-lb. range for maximum takeoff weight. Even a small UAS of the hobbyist variety can cause significant damage when it collides with a helicopter, as documented by accident reports, including a Robinson R44 that was hit by a drone at 180 ft. over Daytona, Florida, last December, a drone that collided with a helicopter in February 2020 over a California off-road race, a Los Angeles police helicopter that was hit by a drone in September 2020, a drone that struck a news helicopter over Los Angeles in 2019, and a US Army Black Hawk that was struck by a 3-lb. DJI Phantom IV over New York City in 2017. In 2021, the FAA received 2,596 pilot reports (PIREPs) of sightings and near-misses between UASs and manned aircraft—all taking place in a regulatory framework where UASs cannot legally fly beyond the sight of their remote pilots without a waiver. What will the low-altitude airspace look like when more UASs are flying BVLOS? Amazon Prime Air has already obtained FAA permission for BVLOS package-delivery flights on a limited basis. The company says it intends to deliver 500 million packages via UAS every year by 2030. VAI also strongly objects to establishing shielded areas around obstacles and critical infrastructure as proposed in the ARC’s recommendations because of the dangers created for manned aircraft operating in those areas. Martino says there are places where shielded operations make sense, such as inside powerplant cooling towers or under bridges, because a UAS in those scenarios is flying in unoccupied airspace. However, Martino points out, shielded areas as proposed by the ARC would establish 100-ft. zones around critical infrastructure in which manned aircraft would be required to give way to UASs, regardless of maneuverability criteria. This, he says, is simply unworkable, in part because “critical infrastructure” is a broad category that includes farm fields, waterways, highways, railroads, power lines, and Internet T-1 lines—16 categories in all as defined by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security. BVLOS rules must consider the needs of current low-altitude airspace users, which include many critical public-service missions, such as law enforcement, utility patrol and construction, search and rescue, and firefighting. (VAI/Paul Smith Illustration) While stressing that it fully supports integration of UASs into the NAS, including BVLOS operations, VAI reiterated its objections in a late-September 2024 position statement. In addition to the issue of shielded operations, the statement proposes: • BVLOS rules must consider the needs of current low-altitude airspace users, which include firefighting, aerial application, law enforcement, search-and-rescue, and utility patrol and construction missions. (VAI notes that in 2023 alone, air ambulances conducted 130,000 off-site landings.) • The right-of-way rules contained in 14 CFR 91.113 should not be changed. • The FAA should create performance-based standards for BVLOS detect-and-avoid requirements. • All aircraft platforms should maximize their ability to be seen, sensed, or detected by visual, electronic, or other means. Potential BVLOS Solutions Erin Roesler, Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NPUASTS) deputy executive director, told POWER UP that fully integrating UAS BVLOS operations into the NAS presents substantial challenges. The NPUASTS is one of seven sites designated by the FAA to support integrating UASs into the NAS, and NASA is also conducting research on BVLOS operations. Roesler points to a variety of BVLOS-enabling technologies, including privately owned ground-based radars, as part of a potential solution set for deconfliction but acknowledges that, ultimately, a “monumental shift” in airspace management infrastructure is needed. The technical challenges of widespread implementation of BVLOS operations are immense, with Roesler estimating that the effort to resolve them will be “a long game of 10-plus years before we’ll see some meaningful widespread impact.” Thales, the French avionics company that has been working on related technology for years, points out that UASs will spawn “low-altitude airspace usage forecasted to be orders of magnitude greater than existing commercial aviation demand.” Such potential demand far outstrips current available air traffic control (ATC) resources, so government and industry have been working on technology that enables digital flight, an environment in which automation allows aircraft to self-separate, manage flight paths, and share situational awareness via information sharing, data connectivity, and cooperative behaviors—without using ATC services. NPUASTS is conducting several research programs, including the testing of radar, optical, acoustic, and radio-frequency methods of UAS detection. Working in cooperation with Thales, NPUASTS has been selected by the FAA to participate in the Radar Data Pathfinder Program, using federal radar data to advance BVLOS. The data is being integrated into Vantis, North Dakota’s system for BVLOS UAS operations, and will be provided to other third-party service suppliers next year. Accessing radar data could enable UAS and air traffic operations and test technologies to advance these services. Roesler envisions a system that would eventually integrate this data and provide it to end users in graphical form, much the way an electronic flight bag works on manned aircraft presently. Besides government radar, other enabling technologies potentially include cellular LTE, ADS-B, and private low-altitude, limited-range radars, such as those in some wind farms. Wind-farm radars typically are used to switch on obstruction lights atop wind turbines. The lights are activated only when aircraft are detected in the area, to minimize ambient light pollution. Panama City, Florida–based DeTect has developed an aircraft detection–lighting system for this purpose with a pair of radars that can detect aircraft up to 24 mi. away. Another company, Observation Without Limits (O.W.L.), has developed a digital radar system that can detect, track, and classify both manned aircraft and drones at ranges varying from 1.5 mi. for drones and 4.4 mi. for light aircraft such as a fixed-wing Cessna 172. The O.W.L. system can be augmented with passive RF sensors, acoustic sensors, and HD and thermal ONVIF cameras. Meanwhile, NASA continues to work on solutions for UAS traffic management (UTM), including focusing on how such a system would work in densely populated urban areas. NASA has developed and tested several related software programs for BVLOS that it is making available to private industry while continuing research into developing a high-performance and intelligent airspace system it calls “Sky for All,” a five-phase approach that runs through 2050, culminating with “scalable, diverse, highly automated operations in integrated airspace.” NASA’s research efforts on UTM BVLOS include Extensible Traffic Management, which will use digital information exchange, cooperative operating practices, and automation to provide air traffic management for remotely piloted small UAS flights, including drone package delivery and public safety operations. Related UTM tools and services are currently being tested in North Texas. NASA researcher Jeff Homola told POWER UP that NASA’s related programs are designed to “make sure that this research gets us to the operational standard, the stage where things actually become reality.” Rather than requiring all UASs to carry a suite of sophisticated sensors and other heavy and costly technology packages, Homola sees cloud-based data provided to operators through subscriptions with third-party service providers as one possible solution for deconfliction. “Operators [would use that data to] manage their operations relative to others in their space” and “strategically deconflict from other drone operations in their airspace,” he says. Current BVLOS Operations Commercial BVLOS operations are being conducted right now via FAA-approved waiver or exemption to the current Part 107 UAS rules, mainly by organizations engaged in public safety and infrastructure inspection and monitoring. Part 108 is expected to make approval and compliance more streamlined. Flight executives from two California utilities, both VAI members, that are currently conducting BVLOS operations, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE), recently participated in a VAI webinar, “Integrating UAS Aircraft into a Helicopter Operation.” SCE operates a fleet of 350 small UASs (sUASs, a class of aircraft weighing less than 55 lb.) and has more than 200 remote pilot employees, while PG&E flies 75 to 90 sUASs daily from its fleet of 200 (see PG&E photo at right). The utilities use the aircraft for infrastructure inspection and wildfire mitigation. Deconfliction issues that arise between each company’s mixed fleet of UASs and helicopters are handled in-house during preflight briefings or in the field with communication between company personnel. PG&E partnered with Skydio in 2023 for its BVLOS operations. Skydio has developed a line of UASs equipped with technology that allows the aircraft to avoid obstacles as small as a half-inch wire. Kellen Kirk, PG&E manager for UAS and fixed-wing operations, says his main concern is that other UAS operators will use the utility’s infrastructure, such as rights-of-way, for their own BVLOS operations. “I don’t think we’re at a point yet where they’ve [industry and the FAA] figured out how to broadcast ADS-B In or Out from drones. There’s a gap that needs to be closed before people are flying drones along our rights-of-way.” No matter what is contained in Part 108, the future low-altitude airspace is likely to be an even busier place. And once BVLOS operations are fully launched, VAI expects that more of its members will field mixed fleets of manned and unmanned aircraft, taking advantage of the UASs’ lower operating costs and ability to handle the dull, dirty, and dangerous missions. But when it comes to the question of how to solve the BVLOS challenge, VAI is adamant that the rules governing those operations must preserve, not downgrade, the current level of safety in an already immensely busy and highly complex airspace. “The aviation community must work together to solve the challenges around BVLOS operations and build a future that allows us all to operate safely,” says Viola. “But we can’t create a system that gambles with the lives of pilots, crews, and passengers by placing them at the mercy of unmanned aircraft that have no duty to avoid other aircraft.” Mark Huber is an aviation journalist with more than two decades of experience in the vertical flight industry.
