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Considerations for flight testing of UAVs in South African airspace

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

L. A. Ingham ,
T. Jones  and
A. Maneschijn
L. A. Ingham
Affiliation:
Faculty of Engineering, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
T. Jones
Affiliation:
Faculty of Engineering, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
A. Maneschijn
Affiliation:
Faculty of Engineering, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
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Abstract

South Africa has strategic requirements for tasks such as maritime patrol and border control. Research on UAVs should be done in order to design, certify and operate UAVs in civil airspace to satisfy these requirements. If principles such as ‘equivalence’, initially proposed by Eurocontrol are to be adopted in South Africa, it then follows that similar standards used by manned aircraft should be used by UAVs. Similarly, because the process of creating UAV regulations has not kept up with the pace of UAV development, and because dedicated UAV regulations do not yet exist in South Africa, UAVs must be tested and evaluated in order to prove compliance with comparable manned aircraft regulations in the foreseeable future until regulations are created or modified to accommodate UAVs. Given the airspace restrictions, and lack of applicable standards and regulations, proper flight testing of UAVs can become a very specialised task. Most test techniques applied to testing of manned aircraft are fortunately equally applicable to UAVs. This is a research-based paper that provides guidance to flight testers, UAV developers and research organisations wishing to execute tests in South Africa by suggesting a number of considerations for testing of UAVs.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 110 , Issue 1114 , December 2006 , pp. 803 - 811
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2006 

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