SAFETY:A NASA presentation showed that air traffic controllers may have to deal with supersonic crewed aircraft, subsonic fixed-wing planes and large UAVs
Taipei Times
Date: Nov 06, 2019
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
Air traffic controllers are facing increasing challenges with the continuous development of uncrewed
A presentation on drones given by NASA is pictured at the 72nd International Air Safety Summit in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA
A presentation from NASA Airspace Operations and Safety Program director Akbar Sultan showed that the airspace between 18,000 feet and 60,000 feet (5,486m and 18,288m) above ground could in future be jointly shared by supersonic crewed aircraft, subsonic fixed-wing aircraft and large UAVs.
Not only would there be airports monitoring the traffic of large civil aviation aircraft on the ground, but there would also be vertiports or droneports on top of buildings or inside airports to accommodate vertical landing and takeoff of electric and hybrid-electric aircraft, the presentation showed, adding that this presents an urgent need for the integration of different air traffic control systems.
As UAV applications are set to expand — from accelerating urban air mobility to facilitating short-haul and medium-haul transportation services — experts said that UAV manufacturers must standardize safety criteria, such as categorization of UAV certification and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) devices. [FULL STORY]
