Civilian unmanned air vehicles – usually very small ones – are already big business, and the industry is growing apace. For that reason, not only the aviation industry but also society as a whole have to decide how best to take advantage of the advances these aircraft can bring, but also contain their potential misuse or abuse.
The European Union is preparing to do just that, and two studies it has commissioned on the regulation of what it calls remotely piloted air systems (RPAS) have just been published. The European Commission wants to see Europe’s RPAS industry flourish, but while also protecting aviation and ordinary people’s interests.
If RPAS operations are carried out responsibly by businesses and individuals who are aware of already existing rules limiting their operation, then traditional aviation has little to worry about. An Airbus A320 on final approach to London Heathrow in July may have experienced a high-risk near miss with an unidentified UAV, but that has not been a typical experience for the airlines or military, who also occasionally suffer near misses with general aviation aircraft or gliders.
The studies flag up as significant the “low barriers to entry” for those who want to operate RPAS. Those barriers are low because the aircraft are mostly small and highly affordable, so individuals can – and will – buy them for private use. The difference between a UAV and a remotely controlled model aircraft is that the latter is operated within visual line of sight purely for the delight of manoeuvring a little aeroplane cleverly, whereas the former has a payload and a purpose. Usually this is photography or surveillance, which can be done for leisure or commercially.
In order that operators can be held to account for their RPAS activities, the reports recommend that their aircraft should be marked with a fire-proof plate identifying the individual machine by serial number, and that would-be users should also be registered.
Because surveillance is the main purpose of most of the RPAS already operating, and that seems likely to remain true, the issues of privacy and the guardianship of data are vital. Already, police forces use UAVs to monitor festivals, protests and unsocial behaviour, and to track wrongdoers, so the use of this data must be circumscribed. Existing law should be able to take care of that, but the proliferation of the new types of personal information gathered – and its potential use – must be examined to see whether it is leading society into a dangerous place.
Source: Flight International
