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NASA News
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Dryden Flight Research Center
P.O. Box 273
Edwards, California 93523
Phone   (661) 276-3449
FAX (661) 276-3566

 
                    April 3, 2003
Alan Brown
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center
(661) 276-2665
alan.brown{at}dfrc.nasa.gov

Bob Williams
Scaled Composites, LLC
(661) 824-4541

RELEASE: 03-20

FLIGHT DEMONSTRATIONS EVALUATE UAV COLLISION-AVOIDANCE TECHNOLOGY

NASA, in cooperation with Scaled Composites, LLC, is conducting a new 
phase of flight demonstrations of collision-avoidance systems to 
develop the ability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to eventually 
fly routinely and reliably in the national civil airspace.  Flights 
on a test range near Mojave, Calif., in early April are evaluating a 
Detect, See and Avoid (DSA) system that can identify non-cooperative 
aircraft without operating transponders. This follows a series of 
flight evaluations of a system to detect cooperative 
transponder-equipped aircraft conducted in March 2002 at Las Cruces, 
N.M.

The full potential of UAV systems cannot be realized until they 
demonstrate the ability to operate safely and routinely within the 
existing air traffic management system. NASA's Environmental Research 
Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program has sought to apply 
technology to scientific and commercial applications, particularly 
the mission to study the Earth's environment with high-altitude, 
long-endurance UAVs.

"NASA's interest is in getting UAVs to fly in national airspace as 
general aviation aircraft do today," said Glenn Hamilton, UAV 
subsystems project manager at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, 
Edwards, Calif. "We need to establish an equivalent level of safety 
for UAVs as manned aircraft have. Collision avoidance utilizing 
reliable Detect, See and Avoid systems is one of the critical 
technologies needed to enable UAVs to operate safely within the 
national airspace structure."   

The surrogate UAV aircraft for the DSA tests is Scaled Composites' 
optionally piloted Proteus. For the current flights, Proteus is 
equipped with an Amphitech OASys high frequency radar system. 
Originally developed to warn low-flying helicopter pilots of power 
lines in their flight path, the 35 GHz (Ka band) radar is being used 
to detect any approaching aircraft on a potential collision course 
within a six nautical mile range, regardless of whether the intruder 
is equipped with an operating transponder. As a backup sensor, 
Proteus also is equipped with the Goodrich Skywatch HP traffic 
advisory system it used successfully to detect transponder-equipped 
aircraft at distances up to 35 nautical miles during last year's 
tests. 

"We chose the Amphitech Ka band radar due to it being lightweight, 
low cost and having low power requirements," Hamilton added. "The 
demonstration is to see if it will work in this application. We're 
trying to find the lowest cost solution that will work."

Proteus and a variety of target aircraft, ranging from a hot-air 
balloon to a high-speed NASA F/A-18 jet, are flying a series of 22 
different simulated conflict scenarios over several days. Flights are 
being conducted in a joint-use restricted test airspace zone 
northwest of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

During the flight demonstrations, Proteus is controlled remotely by a 
pilot in a ground station. Radar data is relayed to a ground station 
via either a line-of-sight telemetry link or an over-the-horizon 
Inmarsat satellite link, and the ground pilot then commands Proteus 
to change course as needed. To enhance flight safety and mitigate 
risk, a 500-foot "safety bubble," including a minimum 200-foot 
vertical separation, is being maintained throughout the tests and a 
pilot is on board the Proteus who can take control at any time.

Douglas Shane, Scaled Composites' vice-president of business 
development and Proteus' remote pilot for many of the test scenarios, 
noted that flight safety is taken very seriously.

"A big component of safety in these tests is the fact that all 
airplanes are piloted," he said. "They have humans with rules of 
engagement to ensure that we don't proceed into an area that might 
create a true conflict, or a true possibility of a mid-air collision. 
That's a big reason why the Proteus is a good developmental testbed, 
because you have that human backup looking out the window."

Russ Wolfe of Modern Technology Solutions, Inc., wrote the test plan 
for the current flight demonstrations, which he cited as "a very 
important step in proving enabling technologies for unmanned air 
vehicles."

"It's something that the FAA deems as essential. They will not 
approve a UAV to fly in the national airspace system without detect, 
see and avoid capability. This test, (along with) many in the future, 
will help to prove this enabling technology." 

"One of the biggest impediments to getting routine access to the 
national airspace for unpiloted vehicles is the whole issue of see 
and avoid," Shane added. "That is one technology that is not mature 
yet, (and) that is critical in order for the FAA and the general 
public to accept an unpiloted airplane as being safe to 
operate...with all the others. We believe these tests are absolutely 
critical and fundamental to (enabling UAVs to have) routine access to 
the national airspace"

Based at Scaled Composites' facility at the Mojave Airport, the UAV 
collision-avoidance flight demonstrations brought together a team of 
pilots, engineers and technicians from NASA Dryden, Scaled 
Composites, Modern Technology Solutions, (MTSI), Amphitech 
International, New Mexico State University's UAV Technical Analysis 
Applications Center (TAAC) and the U.S. Navy Air Warfare Center 
(NAWC).

NASA Dryden provided overall project management and two of the target 
aircraft. Scaled Composites provided the Proteus test aircraft and 
several of the intruder aircraft, as well as hardware and software 
development and the ground control station. In addition to developing 
the test plans and procedures, MTSI, based in Alexandria, Va., 
provided systems engineering and test coordination and will perform 
the post-test data analysis. Amphitech, headquartered in Laval, 
Quebec, Canada, furnished the 35 GHz OASys radar and engineering 
support. TAAC, based at the NMSU campus at Las Cruces, N.M., assisted 
with FAA airspace coordination. NAWC, China Lake, Calif., supported 
the integration of the Amphitech radar and the Skywatch traffic 
advisory system onto the Proteus.

- NASA -

NOTE TO EDITORS:

Still photos and video footage are available to support this release. 
Photos are available on the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center 
Internet Web site at:  http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/photo/Proteus
For photo prints or video dubs, please call (661) 276-2665.

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