FAA begins testing drone traffic management capabilities

In spring 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will begin field tests of its drone traffic management capabilities. The ultimate goal is to integrate drones into the national airspace system.

Field tests of unmanned aircraft systems traffic management (UTM) are aimed at allowing the government and the drone community to improve standards, data exchange methods, and cybersecurity capabilities. The tests will involve the FAA and industry partners operating drones in realistic scenarios. The agency hopes to learn how to manage drone traffic under various conditions.

UTM is the result of collaboration between the FAA, NASA, other federal agencies, and industry leaders. Together they are studying operational concepts, data exchange requirements, and supporting structure to enable drones to fly beyond visual line of sight in airspace where air traffic control services are not provided. 

UTM focuses on drones flying at low altitudes, below 122 meters above ground level. The system operates separately but complements air traffic control services for manned aircraft.

Development of UTM will ultimately define services, roles and responsibilities, information architecture, data exchange protocols, software functions, infrastructure, and performance requirements to enable uncontrolled low-altitude unmanned aircraft operations.

The FAA plans to use the test results to help develop new policy. For industry, the FAA hopes the tests will provide information on updated standards that allow drones to routinely fly beyond the visual line of sight of operators.

The Research Transition Team (RTT) was established to coordinate the UTM initiative between the FAA, NASA, and industry. Focus areas include concept and use case development, data exchange and information architecture, communications and navigation, and detect and avoid. Research and testing will define airspace operating requirements to enable safe drone flights within and beyond visual line of sight in low-altitude airspace.

UTM is how airspace will be managed to enable multiple drone operations beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), where air traffic services are not provided.

Through UTM, drone operators and the FAA will jointly exchange and share airspace status in real time. The FAA will provide real-time restrictions to operators, who are responsible for safely managing their operations within those restrictions, without receiving positive air traffic control services from the FAA. 

The primary means of communication and coordination between the FAA, drone operators, and other stakeholders is a distributed network of highly automated systems via application programming interfaces (APIs), rather than voice communication between pilots and air traffic controllers.

The test results will give the FAA critical information to support new policy development and updated standards that allow drones to routinely fly beyond the visual line of sight of operators.

The FAA and its industry partners will conduct several drone flights under realistic test scenarios to learn more about managing drone traffic under various conditions. Flight tests will examine how the latest capabilities and standards will work to support real-world operations.

Small unmanned aircraft system operators are constantly developing new applications, including package delivery, infrastructure inspection, search and rescue, and agricultural monitoring. There has been limited infrastructure to manage large-scale expansion of operations within the National Airspace System (NAS). 

In response to this need, the FAA Extension, Safety, and Security Act of 2016 established the UTM Pilot Program (UPP) to define the initial set of industry and FAA capabilities needed to support UTM operations.

The FAA recently updated its rules on flying drones over people. In December 2020, the FAA established a universal standard for drone flights over people, while keeping restrictions on flights over large crowds. It stated that if a drone cannot cause a certain level of injury, it may fly over people.

A year later, in December 2021, the FAA approved new test methods from Virginia Tech. These methods were the first accepted by the FAA, as this is the final rule for drone flights over people.

The newly approved test methods determine how much kinetic energy a drone can transfer in real-world conditions, taking into account energy that may dissipate through cracking or breaking. Now that the test method is approved, Virginia Tech can work with drone manufacturers to conduct tests and help develop new aircraft models.