UAVs: A Commercial Future?

Throughout the years, aviation has seen many changes, from the basic 'rag wing' two seat airplane, to large sophisticated carbon fiber airliners capable of carrying hundreds of passengers. Although not always welcome at the time, these and other technological advancements have revolutionized air transportation. Today, the aviation industry faces another leap in technology, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs. Over the past decade, the United States military has utilized UAVs for various roles on the battlefield. These 'drones' can contrast from a small hand launched plane with a camera attached used for reconnaissance, to a full size aircraft that can launch missiles onto ground targets. This proves that the technology has advanced greatly in order to develop these sophisticated aircraft that have this great ability to strike someone on the other side of the world from where the 'pilot' is located. As expected, this technology that was created through the military for use in war, is now looking to be utilized in a civilian capacity. This has happened throughout aviation history, various examples are radar, VORs, and more recently, GPS. Although these past changes affected the aviation industry greatly, they were more of an improvement for the pilot and airplane, making flights safer. This new development is very different from any previously employed into the world of civil aviation.

These UAVs have the potential to completely alter the face of commercial aviation. Just imagine, you get on an airliner first class and have a front row seat to the flight with forward looking windows because there is no cockpit. Although fascinating at first, the thought of not having a human being at the controls and instead having your life cradled by a computer can be utterly terrifying as a passenger. Computers are exploited throughout our everyday lives, most of the public carries a computer in their pocket everyday as a convenience. The technology is brilliant and assists us in our lives, but this comes to a screeching halt every time the technology fails. There are very few who have not experienced a crashed computer, or a smart phone that freezes while performing an important task. This technological use is very familiar to the flying public and they know all too well the down falls of this technology and what happens when it fails. This creates a mistrust of the equipment, but this is only our phones and personal computers we are discussing! If a person cannot trust the technology in their phone, how are they supposed to accept it to get them safely from point A to point B? The public perception of UAVs will be the deciding factor as to whether or not they will be fully implemented. It won't matter how great or capable the technology is, if the consumer doesn't trust it, it will not make use of it. Already the public is almost trained by the media to fear flying, will they ever bring themselves to be perfectly okay with a computer flying them around? I seriously doubt this.

I believe that the technology will always be ahead of the industry because of this reason. Right now, we have the ability to completely eliminate the pilot from the equation and fly autonomously. The benefits are endless, airlines would have much less cost due to greatly reduced personnel and human error would be completely eliminated. Located here is an article in the Smithsonian Air and Space magazine website outlining some of the possible uses for UAVs. Aircraft could operate much closer together and therefore reducing traffic congestion due to the lack of human mistakes when flying certain altitudes and headings. The aircraft would be constantly talking to each other reporting their positions so there would be no doubt as to whether or not the flights would be completely safe. These are all great reasons to use UAVs in commercial transportation, but let's look at what scenarios may happen when an emergency situation exists. For this I will cite a widely recognized commercial accident in which many died but even more were saved due to quick thinking on the part of the crew. On July 19th, 1989, a Douglas DC-10 crash landed in Sioux City Iowa after an uncontained engine failure that severed all hydraulic lines on the aircraft. With hydraulics eliminated, the crew had to think on their feet and come up with a solution on how to control the aircraft. In the end, the crew controlled the plane with differential thrust from the remaining two engines and crash landed onto a runway at Sioux Gateway Airport killing 111 people, but saving 185. If a situation such as this happened to a drone, there would be little if no hope for the passengers. A computer thinks in one direction only, using controls as they were meant to and can provide no insight as to fixing an unexpected problem. The human element is both a liability and a sense of security. I believe that integration of the pilot and automation is a good thing, which is what we are already doing.

Today, we are already starting to integrate drones into the national airspace system. This implementation is being done in areas with little civil air traffic. "In a statement after it certified the Boeing and AeroVironment drones, the FAA said a major energy company plans to fly the ScanEagle off the Alaska coast in August to survey ice flows and whale migration in Arctic oil exploration areas (Haldane, 2013)." After they have been implemented on a smaller scale to see the effects on civil aviation, they will be further utilized on a larger scale. This integration of the UAVs into the system will be very difficult, pilots are very skeptical as to whether or not they prove a hazard to flight for other aircraft. Also, the lack of regulations on the part of the FAA is making it an unpredictable industry. "Up until now, most nonmilitary use of UAVs in the U.S. has been limited to police and other government agencies (The Associated Press, 2013)." Many are questioning whether or not our safety is a concern when implementing these drones into the national airspace. Aeronautics is a company that claims that all of these safety concerns for the flying public will be answered here. Building the trust of the public is a tall order, but this will have to be done in order to commence with widespread UAV use throughout the country.

Haldane, M. (2013, August 08). U.S. slowly opening up commercial drone industry. Reuters. Retrieved October 6, 2013, from http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/08/us-usa-drones-commercial-idUSBRE97715U20130808

The Associated Press. (2013, July 26). Drones to fly U.S. skies, FAA approves 1st civilian UAVs. CBC News. Retrieved October 6, 2013, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/drones-to-fly-u-s-skies-faa-approves-1st-civilian-uavs-1.1377778