It’s definitely a deliberately provocative front page headline designed to grab attention: “the rise of drones.” The Air Force does not like the term ‘drone’ primarily because of media headlines about drone strikes taking out Taliban insurgents implying that drones are autonomous robots, all-seeing, omnipotent machines that find and destroy their targets without human intervention.

Instead, the Air Force prefers the term “remotely piloted aircraft” or RPA, which has also been adopted by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority. Certainly in the military context, RPA is more accurate terminology than UAV or ‘unmanned aerial vehicle’.

It’s true that military platforms like the MQ-9 Reaper (on our cover) are drones in the sense that a pilot is not physically on board the aircraft. But it is more accurate to say that they are remotely piloted, since a Reaper’s crew, consisting of a pilot and a sensor operator, flies the aircraft and makes all decisions about the employment of its weapons and sensors from the ground.

While autonomous aircraft may be on the horizon, for now at least UAVs are only unmanned in the sense that no one is physically on the plane. All decision making is done by a trained human.

(In fact, as we reported in our article elsewhere in this issue, the RAAF’s director of unmanned systems calls RPAs “hyper-manned” because of the manning requirements to operate a system capable of “persistent” operations the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Where RPA is a more of a misnomer is in the world of small drones that the general public can buy. Yes, small drones are ‘piloted’ in the sense that they are controlled by a pilot on the ground via a remote control, but in the vast majority of cases, drones are flown by ‘pilots’ with nothing resembling qualifications and the knowledge and understanding of aviation of a ‘pilot’ in a traditional manned aircraft.

And that is an area of ​​great concern and controversy. Anecdotally, many professionals within the aviation industry, from pilots to air traffic controllers, have serious concerns that it is only a matter of time before a small drone crashes into a commercial airliner while approaching or leaving an airport. , causing a potential disaster.

CASA is faced with the unenviable task of trying to regulate an area of ​​aviation that is almost impossible to control adequately. Small drones are cheap and plentiful, all you need to own one is a credit card with a $1,000 balance, a few minutes of shopping online on eBay or even Officeworks and voila, you’re a drone ‘pilot’. (We’ll know we’ve reached ‘max drone’ when an Amazon.com delivery drone delivers the drone you order online to your door.)

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched the Aerial Dragnet program, which “seeks innovative technologies to provide persistent, wide-area surveillance of all [unmanned aircraft] operating below 1,000 feet in a big city”, Could there be apps here to keep airports safe from rogue drones?

The rules covering the commercial operation of drones weighing more than 2 kg require the operators to have an RPA Operator Certificate (ReOC) and the pilot to have a Remote Pilot License (RePL), i.e. have knowledge and aviation training.

But more worrisome are regulations covering recreational use and new rules introduced from September 29, which cover commercial use of drones weighing less than 2kg. In both cases, no formal aviation knowledge is required, with only two key requirements governing its use. airfields,” states the CASA website summarizing the new amendments to CASR Part 101 introduced on September 29, and “you must not fly your RPA higher than 120 meters (400 feet) AGL.”

Essentially these same restrictions apply to recreational drones (and remote controlled aircraft). But how will an RPA pilot with no formal aviation background or training know when he is flying within 5.5 km (or 3 nautical miles) of a controlled airport? And how well do they know the dangers of doing so if they choose to ignore those rules?

You must keep your RPA at least 5.5 km away from the controlled ‘peak drone’ when an Amazon delivery drone, com delivers the drone you order online to your door.

Because there are few ways to prevent a drone from entering controlled airspace, either through ignorance or willful will, and almost no way to warn of a potential drone attack on a commercial airliner carrying hundreds of passengers until be too late.

The drones are so small that they cannot be detected by primary air traffic control radar and are not equipped with transponders.

Aside from having Air Force Reaper RPA patrolling the airspace around our major airports ready to shoot down rogue drones entering controlled airspace with their Hellfire missiles, what is really needed is a better understanding of the dangers of a 2kg drone. that hits a “manned”. 737 with 150 passengers and crew.

For decades, aviation has focused on minimizing the real danger of bird strikes, so aircraft already have some level of protection against a drone strike. Still, we need to know more about the risk drones pose, especially with their solid batteries and motors and spinning rotors.

The perception of drones is undoubtedly affected by their foreboding appearance: whether it’s a Reaper or a recreational drone purchased on eBay, they look like something out of a sci-fi movie.

But the threat that drones pose to the safety of pilots and the flying public is more than just perception.