Defining Handling Qualities of Unmanned Aerial Systems

Currently the UAS arena includes traditional airframers, established UAS manufacturers, hobbyists, academic institutions, and many air vehicle newcomers that see UAS as a means to other military or commercial applications. A myriad of issues continues to slow the development of verification, validation, and certification methods. These issues include the lack of both a consensus UAS categorization process and quantitative certification requirements including the definition of handling qualities. The “how to” of safely integrating UAS in naval operations where they will operate with manned aircraft raises many questions with limited answers. Perhaps the problem is too big. Because of a lack of quantitative data, attempts to address core problems thus far have failed to achieve consensus support. This Phase II program does not propose to tame the entire verification, validation, and certification problem, but instead the important need to define UAS handling qualities in piloted, pilot monitoring, and autonomous operations via a mission-oriented approach. The end product will be the UAS Handling Qualities Assessment software toolbox (UAS-HQ) and corresponding specification that will guide Navy stakeholders through a systematic evaluation process. This process will be validated in Phase II via testing of fixed wing and rotary wing UAS.