Volume III UAS Airborne Collision Severity Evaluation Fixed-Wing
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Overview
abstract
Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs) is the fastest growing sector of the aviation industry today, according to The Association for Unmanned Vehicles International (AUVSI), the largest trade group around UASs, estimates that by 2019 more than 70,000 jobs will be created in the US with an economic impact of more than $13.6B. Globally, UAS market volume is expected to reach 4.7 million units by 2020. Nonetheless, safety, regulatory, social and technical challenges need to be addressed before the sight of an unmanned aircraft in the sky becomes as common and accepted by the public as its manned counterparts. The effect of an airborne collision between an UAS and a manned aircraft is a concern to the public and government officials at all levels. The primary goal of regulating UAS operations into the National Airspace System (NAS) is to assure an appropriate level of safety. While the effects of bird impacts on airplanes are well documented, little is known about the effects of more rigid and higher mass UASs on aircraft structures and propulsion systems. This research evaluates the severity of small UAS (sUAS) (under 55 lb, as defined in the Small Unmanned Aircraft Rule (Part 107)) collisions on commercial and business jet airframes and propulsion systems. Findings from this research can be used to help define airborne hazard severity thresholds for collisions between unmanned and manned aircraft. The results presented in this report will focus on small fixed-wing UAS configuration impacting on a typical commercial transport aircraft and a typical business jet. A second report will document a quadcopter UAS configuration impacting on the same aircraft structures, and the third report will focus on the effects of UAS engine ingestion. Further research will be conducted in the near future to analyze the UAS airborne collision severity level with general aviation (GA) aircraft and rotorcraft.
