Flight Test Evaluation of an Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) Concept for Multiple Beyond-Visual-Line-of-Sight Operations

Abstract

This study evaluates a traffic management concept designed to enable simultaneous operations of multiple small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the national airspace system (NAS). A five-day flight-test activity is described that examined the feasibility of operating multiple UAS beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) of their respective operators in the same airspace. Over the five-day campaign, three groups of five flight crews operated a total of eleven different aircraft. Each group participated in four flight scenarios involving five simultaneous missions. Each vehicle was operated BVLOS up to 1.5 miles from the pilot in command. Findings and recommendations are presented to support the feasibility and safety of routine BVLOS operations for small UAS.

Authors

• Johnson, Marcus NASA Ames Research Center
• Jung, Jaewoo NASA Ames Research Center
• Rios, Joseph NASA Ames Research Center
• Mercer, Joey NASA Ames Research Center
• Homola, Jeffrey NASA Ames Research Center
• Prevot, Thomas NASA Ames Research Center
• Mulfinger, Daniel NASA Ames Research Center
• Kopardekar, Parimal NASA Ames Research Center

Keywords

• UTM
• Unmanned aircraft system traffic management
• airspace integration
• traffic management
• Unmanned aircraft
• UAS