And tonight's speaker is Cathy Cahill.
Thank you Cathy for talking to us.
Thank you.
OK so it's always good to get a read of the
audience.
How many people here are pilots- put your
hands up.
All right.
We've got a fair number of pilots.
How many people own drones OK.
We've got a fair number of drone people.
How many people are just interested in what
on earth we're doing.
OK.
We're off to a good start.
OK.
So Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems
Integration RTD&E What a horribly long name
we were named by a retired four star general.
So we go by ACUASI so we are the center of
excellence for the University of Alaska.
So if you're going to be doing unmanned aircraft
operations through the university you're going
to be talking with our team and we really
are focused on research that's where we started.
And so we have been conducting scientific
research.
We've been assisting the FAA in terms of trying
to do the safe integration of unmanned aircraft
into the airspace.
We know it's not empty.
So if you want to think about what we're talking
about this what are we doing.
We are the cars going into the horses and
carriages.
You don't want the cars to scare the horses
and carriages.
You want to make sure that it's a safe integration
and everybody can share the road.
Well our road just happens to be in three
dimensions.
So we've got the vertical we've got the horizontal
and manned aviation is already there.
The sky is not empty.
So we need to make sure as we come in we're
being safe and that everybody's playing by
the same rules and that we don't cause any
incidents.
And of course we want to make sure we're supporting
the state of Alaska we're Alaska's university.
We see the challenges and the potential for
this technology up here.
We want to make sure we're benefiting everybody
here.
So we are a world leader in UAS. here in the
backcountry.
So it's one of those things we go to conferences
and all you need to say is you're from the
University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Everybody knows that you are a world expert
as our team has pointed out to me when our
team talks, everybody else shuts up and listens
because we have a lot of experience and we
are very very operational.
We lead one of the seven FAA test sites for
unmanned aircraft.
We are one of 15 universities and their center
of excellence.
And we now lead one of the 10 FAA U.S. pilot
programs- integration pilot programs.
I will tell you more about that later.
That is a major feather in our cap.
So if you look at these three major programs
only one organization in the country has all
three and that would be us.
Some states have all three but they're in
different entities.
They're not all in the university.
So North Dakota has the test site which is
separate from the University which is separate
from the Department of Transportation here.
They're all inside UAF.
So who are we.
Well we're about 18 people combination of
veterans defense contractors students engineers
scientists you know business developers.
We've got A&P mechanics.
We have a flight controller.
We've got people who have experience in the
airspace and who have a lot of drive to do
really cutting edge stuff.
And then of course who can we pull on for
scientific missions.
Well that would be the entire rest of the
University of Alaska.
So someone says I need to go measure sea ice.
We say OK , what do you need.
So we have a lot of military experience.
This is important.
In this particular case, we have very very
operational very experienced people.
We aren't just throwing up the technology
to throw it up.
And what you find is that some of the folks
who don't understand airspace and how to integrate
really think of it as a toy we throw it in
the air space, everything's good.
No you throw it in the airspace and you're
going to cause a problem.
So we've got a very experienced team.
Unmanned aircraft system not University of
Alaska Southeast.
You will also hear it referred to as a drone.
We don't like the term drone.
Drones were pre you know World War Two.
They were designed to be shot down.
We don't want to be shot down.
The other thing is it implies no intelligence
with our unmanned aircraft.
There's a lot of intelligence involved and
we usually have a human in the loop.
So for US drone is a derogatory term it unfortunately
is the term that everybody remembers.
So you'll hear people using drone you'll hear
me use drone.
If you go internationally.
It's a remotely piloted vehicle or a remotely
piloted aircraft system.
So you'll hear multiple terms for the same
thing.
Now in this what's the part everybody loves.
That would be the aircraft.
The aircraft is the sexy cool thing.
Now the problem is the sexy cool thing is
actually a pickup truck if- if all you want
to do is go drive around in your pickup truck
that's fine but you're burning a lot of gas
money in your pickup truck.
We go fly around just for the sake of flying
around we're burning expensive holes in the
sky.
So you want- whoops back forward one more.
So what we want is that payload.
The moment you put a sensor on that unmanned
aircraft.
Now it's worth something.
It can be a camera.
Take photos of your house.
It can be a methane detector to look for leaks
over pipelines.
It can be a whole multitude of things but
suddenly you now have a system that can get
you information you otherwise couldn't get.
So you've got the payload but you have to
integrate it into the aircraft.
We have some really good engineers who specialize
in building mounts for cameras to go in unmanned
aircraft.
You guys watched the video ahead of time.
You saw some of those cable landings right
and you saw the launches.
Anyone want to guess on how many Gs your payload
must withstand about twelve.
Translation, if you have not really hardened
your system what happens on the launch.
It's broken.
And then you can go fly 20 hours with that
unmanned aircraft and achieve absolutely nothing.
So you want to make sure it's integrated well.
You want to be able to get the data down you
need to be able to command and control that
aircraft.
And that means you have to have a really good
team a payload specialist, pilots, program
managers et cetera.
We have a whole bunch of unmanned aircraft.
Now the unmanned aircraft I really wanted
to bring you tonight is a bear to haul around
this one right here.
It's a 12 foot wingspan four hundred and twenty
five pound maximum takeoff weight.
This is a Sentry.
We have ten of them.
We got them from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Twenty five million dollars of equipment for
25000 plus shipping.
Jimmy earned his pay for the year.
Today we had NASA approached us and say can
we have them.
And we said, no.
Can we have the engines.
No, you guys got lucky.
Yes.
So that's our newest acquisition.
This is a real aircraft for those of you who
are pilots.
She's built like an aircraft aviation locks
safety wiring the full works.
Our other one is Sea Hunter.
Sea Hunter is a 16 foot wingspan, 325 pound
twin engine.
This one is good for about six and a half
hours at about 70 knots.
This one's good for 11 and a half hours at
75 knots.
Translation we can cover a lot of territory
than we have.
This is going to be our newest one.
It actually has not been delivered yet.
This is this the sky front perimeter.
It's five and a half hours.
It is a gas electric multi rotor.
It's a hybrid.
This is responder.
This is about a 35 to 40 minute electric.
How many people recognize this one.
That would be a DJI what that'd be inspire.
And if you've watched the new X Files they
had a really good episode with creepy unmanned
aircraft.
That was one of the best ones.
And then this is a little DJI Mavic.
This is what you buy at Costco for fifteen
hundred bucks.
It takes good photos.
So we've got and then we've got a little tiny
ones in the Mather library at the Geophysical
Institute.
If you've got a library card you can check
them out and go fly them downstairs in an
elevated hula hoop course.
So we do everything from stress relief for
students all the way to major missions for
international governments.
We do a whole bunch of things with different
payloads and some of these payloads are kind
of fun flares is a favorite.
They really want a flamethrower.
I haven't let them have that yet.
It's still illegal to weaponize drones for
the civilians so we can't do that.
We've dumped oil retardant.
We do air pollution work.
We look for leaks.
We do radar.
We are trying to do detect and avoid technology
where our aircraft will autonomously spot
another aircraft and move to avoid it that
way if we ever lose llink we still will not
collide with another aircraft.
Cutting edge technology here at UAF.
Potential uses for UAS.
Cargo delivery.
Amazon has a last mile delivery problem.
Here in Alaska we have a last couple hundred
mile delivery problem.
So we're talking about if you happen to be
in a case where you can't fly.
OK.
Pilots geek moment visual flight rules translation
you can't see.
We can take an unmanned aircraft in to an
area.
Smaller runway.
We can do a vertical takeoff for landing.
So there are some opportunities here to deliver
when a community is fog then we can do medical
supply delivery.
Think about that if you happen to be in a
community you're cut off.
It's fogged in.
You have a short runway they can't bring in
and expect a large plane.
We can get medical supplies into you.
The potential for lifesaving in Alaska dropping
cell phones and you know various heaters blankets
food et cetera to people who are lost in the
wilderness- do search and rescue.
All of these things are possible missions
here in Alaska.
Pipeline surveillance, roadway inspection,
mammal surveys.
We may get to go count polar bears.
The team is fighting over who gets to go count
polar bears.
I unfortunately am not a pilot.
I think I'm lowest on the totem.
Ice jam, wildfire.
All of these things just think about the number
of ways we can apply this technology and we've
applied it a bunch of different ways.
Wildfires, walrus.
Walrus are obnoxious animals.
They know FAA regulations.
We were flying over them on icebergs to find
out at what level they would start to respond
to the aircraft to guarantee that when we
went over land we wouldn't cause a stampede.
Which of course would kill walrus.
So then we were get ready to go fly over the
above land.
And we did not have permission to fly within
two miles of the Point Lay airport.
They'll hold that within two miles of the
Point Lay airport.
This is not a picture of a bridge.
This is a point cloud.
This is a bunch of images and LIDAR put together
to give you a three dimensional model of the
bridge.
You can read the numbers on the bolts.
You can do this with an unmanned aircraft.
You do not have to have somebody repel off
the bridge a whole lot safer.
This is Aialik glacier done from responder
off of a national park service boat.
This was another one of those horrible missions
the team had to go on.
You're in the National Park the Kenai Fjords.
You can't be flying an unmanned aircraft in
the middle of the day when the tourists are
there because it would ruin their experience.
And you're stuck on a national park service
boat.
What do you do.
You go fishing.
They didn't bring me any.
They're still busted.
And that was over a year ago.
We worked with NASA on multiple aircraft operating
at the same time.
This is burning an equivalent of an oil spill.
This is out of poker flat.
They took the test basin and they put a whole
bunch of water in it.
They put fake icebergs.
They dumped oil in the water to simulate one
oil spill would be like in the water went
through with an agent to cause the oil to
clump together.
Went through with a torch and lit it.
We can now do oil spill response.
That actually having to somebody have somebody
be on that site so we can start fixing the
problem before people can even get there.
And then we can fly things like flare stacks
where it used to be you'd have to turn off
the flare field climb up see what the problem
was.
Order the part.
Get it on site fix it and then bring the field
back up.
Now we can go fly it determine what parts
need to be replaced.
Order them have them on site and only then
do they bring the flare stack down and then
back up.
Savings of 1 to 3 million per stack.
Lot of money.
Advantages of unmanned aircraft.
They're safer.
We fly the Trans Alaska Pipeline twice a day
with helicopters right.
There have been accidents there have been
fatalities.
If you were to do with unmanned aircraft we
can probably give you the same or better data
but if it goes down we've not lost any lives
all we've lost is money and that's far preferable.
It's repeatable.
You can fly the same track over and over again.
Environmentally friendly.
We sip gas compared to a helicopter.
We started comparing costs with helicopter
operations.
The fuel bill the helicopter guys have is
awe-inspiring and for us it's about your pickup
truck.
It can be less expensive to operate.
That's not always a given and it depends on
the regulations.
High resolution data and the potential to
fly when manned aircraft can't.
Now the challenges.
Number one would be the FAA.
The FAA is one of our biggest benefactors
and is doing really good things in terms of
safely advancing but right now the rules are
such that prohibits a lot of what we want
to do and type certification.
What is type certification type certification
means that you understand every part of your
aircraft you understand how often you need
to change the motors when you need to do maintenance.
All of those things to guarantee the aircraft
is safe and will not fall out of the sky.
So that is something that is of concern.
There are only two type certified aircraft-
unmanned aircraft in the country right now.
The Puma and the Scaneagle.
General aviation- I love our pilots.
Let me state that right up front but the FAA
doesn't quite understand flying in Alaska.
So they're like, nobody flies under 500 feet.
OK.
You have not been up to Alaska in hunting
season.
(laughter) Move your house.
IFR instrument flight rules.
No.
I follow rivers.
So you go low under the clouds and you follow
the rivers home right.
All of these things are a challenge when you're
trying to use an unmanned aircraft where you
don't have somebody sitting right in the aircraft.
And so we will work on the best methods and
NASA's like we can control everything under
400 feet.
We can have everybody feeding into the same
system, uh yeah.
No that won't happen.
Harsh environments icing winds etc.
Having people with the experience we're getting
more and more people who are retiring from
the military who have unmanned aircraft experience.
But it is a function of training and learning
how to operate under difficult environments.
Unlicensed users OK.
Oh those of you who have your drones.
How many of you have registered them.
OK so you guys are better than the average
population but not by much.
So we went to- let's see it was North Pole
High School said how many of you kids have
drones about half the hands went up.
How many of you have registered them?
Two.
We watched the FAA safety guys as faces fal.
They're like the message isn't out.
We're like, we'll report it up the chain for
you.
But it is a case.
Register your drones.
The unlicensed users the people who think
of it as a toy they don't think about the
fact that there are planes in the airspace
they can be very dangerous and the moment
one of those aircraft brings down a manned
aircraft.
You know what the FAA is going to do to the
whole field right.
Everything is stopped.
We've been through this with them before.
Although it wasn't an accident that did it.
And the quantity of data we can get terabytes
per flight.
So how do you handle all that data is a real
challenge.
So icing.
Icing is the bane of all aviation.
In our case we are working with NASA Department
of Energy NOAA and others to try to understand
icing.
So this is part of our Sea Hunter's wing in
the NASA Glenn icing research tunnel.
So NASA modeled our aircraft modeled what
the icing shapes should look like as the accumulated
ice while flying.
And then we went and ran it in the wind tunnel.
They scanned it and compared it and the object
is eventually to have models that are good
enough that they can interpret what your aircraft
can handle.
How much icing it's going to get.
We're working with.
How do you interact between multiple unmanned
aircraft in the same airspace.
This is the NASA UAS traffic management system
and NASA again does not understand Alaska.
Their very first thing they said all you need
is a cellular enabled iPad.
And we said our prime- our prime flight range
has no cell phone coverage.
They looked at me like I was speaking Greek
because they're all from where NASA Ames their
Bay Area.
If it's less than five bars the world has
come to an end.
So we've had to educate NASA.
But this is something where we are working
with them at the cutting edge to try to get
a system where everybody knows who's in what
airspace so we can avoid everybody else.
And so that the aircraft if a medivac or someone
comes through all the unmanned aircraft will
get out of the way.
We also have what we call geo-fencing.
If there is an area you do not want someone
to go you put it into the software.
Everybody who downloads the software knows
that area is a no-fly.
Where do you think you might want thos?e Airports.
DOJ wants them over prisons.
DHS has a whole bunch.
DOE- nuclear power plants trans Alaska pipeline
might end up on that list at some point.
So you have a bunch of places where they are
very very concerned.
And then of course DOD anything and everything
do not fly unmanned aircraft on DOD property.
This is not a good idea.
Not only is it a risk to what they are doing
but you can face some serious fines, jail.
Other stuff.
You just don't want to go there.
So rules governing aviation I put this in
for the geeks that are pilots.
Code- Code of Federal Regulations Title 14
has everything to do with aircraft Part 91
is safety in the national airspace system
unmanned aircraft must obey Part 91 as we
can.
There are certain parts of Part 91 and these
other things where we have trouble- seat belts
on the pilot to us seems silly as we have
to have seat belts on the plane or for the
pilot.
We really don't necessarily want to get seat
belted into our desk chair as we're flying
by computer.
Foot high tail numbers some of our aircraft
are this big around.
You could rap it enough times around.
But you've just greatly increased the weight
of the aircraft.
So we're working with the FAA to establish
what rules and regulations apply what can
be exempted what can be waived what makes
sense so that as you do this you don't every
person going through this doesn't have to
write a waiver for the seat belts etc.
We know what it's going to be.
Part 101 is for the hobbyist.
Those of you who bought the commercial drones
that are just having fun.
Part 107 is the small unmanned aircraft rules.
Those of you who bought the small unmanned
aircraft and are making money.
Notice there is a difference here.
If you're a hobbyist or recreational user
you're under Part 101 one, if you're going
to make any money from your images you are
now part 107, different rules apply.
So types of airspace.
This is important.
If you happen to have your nice little drone
because you don't want to interfere with airports
what happened to Gatwick over Christmas.
People were intentionally flying drones in
the approaches they were trying to stop Gatwick
from running.
They inconvenienced hundreds of thousands
of people.
So these areas if you're ever going to try
to operate in any of these areas you have
to have the FAA permission.
These areas here if you're going to make money
you need to have permission to fly.
And Tom can fix you can correct me on anything
I say since he's our airspace guru and he's
here.
Class D. What's Fairbanks International Airport.
It's class D.
You're not supposed to fly within five miles
of Fairbanks International Airport without
the airport's approval.
Class E extension.
Well this one Tom.
What's the rule in Class E?
Pretty much the same.
Yep.
So you need to be asking permission you need
to understand how close are you to an airport.
Is it a D. Is it an E. Is it a B. So you can
check that out before you fly is an app you
can get on your cell phone.
I recommend checking it out.
I recommend getting it just for fun and turning
it on in Washington D.C. because there is
a 30 mile do not fly zone over Washington
D.C.
And so you have all these things do not fly
here don't even try it.
Don't think about it.
Bright red letters.
It's actually a lot of fun but it will tell
you where the airports are and where you would
be needing to ask for permission and it identifies
the airports etc.
So the hobbyist.
Now you'll notice I put pre-October fifth.
What happened October 5th the 2018 FAA Reauthorization
Act was passed.
The rules changed so before for non-commercial
these year hobbyist you guys have your drone
for fun.
You had fairly easy access compared to those
of us who were professionals and the key thing
is never compromise the safety of other aviation.
That is rule number one no matter what you
do with an unmanned aircraft.
I don't care if you're public government civil
commercial whatever do not interfere with
aviation and it can't be for compensation
or higher.
This one led to some fun things we as a university
have people want to fly unmanned aircraft
for research.
Well guess what that was illegal because the
grad student was getting paid by the grant
so that's compensation or higher.
The professor is getting paid to teach so
the professor was not allowed to handle the
unmanned aircraft unless the student was about
to crash it so there were some interesting
rules that were coming out at that point.
They recommend the Academy of Model Aeronautics
and other regulatory hobby groups that provide
guidance in terms of how to behave.
Keep it under 400 feet day time line of sight
only etc.
The Alaska Legislative UAS task force got
everything ahead of everyone and published
a really fun set of guides with if something
happens.
What do you do.
And you can find all of them at the Alaskadrones.org
which is the legislative task force web site.
Do not interfere with aviation if there is
a wildfire.
You want to put your drone up and take pictures.
You are busted.
They catch you.
There are fines etc. because as long as your
unmanned aircraft is up they cannot put the
bombers in because you're putting manned aircraft
at risk.
So this has gotten a lot of people seriously
fined.
There was a case where there was a wildfire
near Los Angeles in one of the passes and
somebody was putting up unmanned aircraft
to film it.
They pulled the bombers the fire swept over
I think it was I5.
Could've been I10.
Burned a whole bunch of cars because the bombers
were not able to fight it because of the risk.
Do not do this.
So this goes into messing with aviation OK
so this is Las Vegas.
This is near McCarran Airport.
This is somebody with their racing drone and
they're quite high up from what you can tell.
And that is a loaded passenger aircraft going
for landing at McCarran International Airport.
That was fairly close for a strike that would
be something the pilots would report.
This is something where the FAA was going
after the person who uploaded this to YouTube.
Yeah.
Don't upload to YouTube is the second thing
on that if you're going to do something stupid
don't provide evidence.
This is another one.
So this is a realtor who just got his brand
new Inspire was going to go film a house for
a listing recording now so his wife is wearing
the first person goggles to line up the image
so she's standing kind of around the corner.
He's taken out of the box he's never flown
it before.
Step number one you should really learn how
to fly these things before you try to do like
work with them.
So we got up that bouncing camera was several
thousand dollars.
The dent in the garage door is impressive
and his whole thing is like we got it on tape.
Don't do things like that.
That's really just fundamentally a bad idea.
So use your common sense is a key thing out
of this.
AMA Academy of Model Aeronautics.
This if you happen to be a hobbyist is a great
thing.
It gives you some insurance.
They give you the rules on how to fly safely.
They can train you.
These are the folks that a lot of the RC aircraft
pilots belong to.
So it's a good way to get some coverage and
get some exposure and they can definitely
help you learn how to use your systems this
is a legislative task force document I told
you about.
I'm going to show you one example from it.
OK.
Question frequently asked question- Can I
shoot it down.
This is an Alaskan question.
Also Kentucky Colorado Wyoming a bunch of
other places.
The answer is don't do it.
And as it points out here there's some really
clever things they mention.
One thing is you don't know if it's carrying
a hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment
or if it's just somebody's you know, entertainment.
And of course if it's carrying that much expensive
camera equipment what's its last picture going
to be.
That would be providing forensic evidence
because it probably come back as you shooting
it.
The other thing is under Title 18 of the United
States code you are not allowed to sabotage
an aircraft.
So the wiretapping can't- you can't hack an
aircraft that's sabotage you can't shoot it
down that's sabotage.
You can't jam it.
FCC has rules about that.
So the problem is if you're trying to defend
airports et cetera we can't test any of the
ways you'd want to take it down in the national
airspace because it's illegal.
So DOD has been doing all the work on this.
In other countries and restricted airspace
they're not dumb.
But as of October 5th remember Reauthorization
Act the FAA now has permission to shoot down
aircraft- unmanned aircraft in the national
airspace DOD DOE DOJ DHS FAA those are the
five who can legally shoot down aircraft they
can hack the aircraft they can do whatever
they need to get it down and hopefully in
a couple of months, University of Alaska Fairbanks
because we'll be working with the FAA.
So this is something we really want to do,
no nothing about shooting things down causing
damage.
I've never written a grand proposal where
aircraft attrition was something you had to
write in because quote unquote some of them
will not survive.
My favorite quote of the year.
Post October 5th for the hobbyist and this
is a challenge.
There will be a new aeronautical knowledge
test so all of you who've now bought your
little drone and you've registered it right?
Now I will also have to do an aeronautical
knowledge test.
They didn't put this in immediately because
they need to develop the aeronautical knowledge
test and have it be something appropriate
for unmanned aircraft for people who are not
trained pilots.
You must register- you must register and let
the lawsuits commence.
As it turns out the RC aircraft lobby is one
of the strongest I have ever seen and the
FAA, originally it said you have to register
your aircraft.
The lobby went to Congress and came back with
the, no we're suing etc.
You can't do this.
Congress finally said you actually have to
do it.
So for a while you did have to register, then
you didn't have to register, you now have
to register.
Part 107.
Here are your commercial operators with small
unmanned aircraft under five-four hundred
feet in visual line of sight.
You must see the aircraft at all times or
an observer can see it less than fifty five
pounds.
Fifty five pounds is the difference between
a small unmanned aircraft and a large unmanned
aircraft.
For reasons nobody is really sure about daytime
operations only, no operations over people.
I forgot to add the video of the drone falling
and hitting a lawyer in the head and bouncing
and hurting somebody else.
The lawyer was fine the person who got hit
at an angle had a concussion but no operations
over people specifically for that reason.
So when you go to the equinox marathon, Yukon
Quest and you see people flying overhead.
It was illegal so operations over people which
has the unfortunate acronym of OOPS must contact
the airport within five miles of an airport.
You must have remote pilot certificate.
I know there's several people in this room
who have them.
Thank you for getting it.
That is what you should be doing.
So if you've got that you can request permission
from the FAA to do commercial operations so
you can film somebodies house.
You can film a race provided you're standoff.
Now all of these conditions can be waived
except the wait.
This only applies for small unmanned aircraft
so you can do ops over people if you happen
to have the right mitigation techniques etc.
Have they offered a lot of those?
That would be a no.
Beyond visual line of sight.
They've offered a handful.
One of the first civil ones happens to be
University of Alaska Fairbanks.
We've got all of eleven and a half miles.
Kansas said we're the first university beyond
visual line of sight.
They've got two and a half miles, two and
a half miles means you can't see the aircraft
but you can see all the airspace around it.
Eleven and a half miles is true beyond visual
line of sight.
So what are we asking for next?
134.
We're pushing it.
And then there's commercial.
So these are the people who will do your cargo
deliveryetc.
Have you guys heard of any true commercial
operations from Amazon or anybody else.
No they haven't been approved.
So you need to be an FAA certified air carrier.
Part 135.
Those of you in manned aviation.
This is what you have with Raven for example.
They're a part 135 operator.
You need to have that type certified aircraft.
I told you.
There are only two of them.
Last I checked the price on a scaneagle was
2.1 Million for a full system.
Little out of our price range.
And with these things there are no pure unmanned
aircraft part 135's exist.
Seven are in process.
One of them belongs to unmanned systems Alaska
based here in Fairbanks.
So we are going for that certification right
now with the FAA.
And until these are overcome they're not going
to let you go beyond visual line of sight
because they're afraid the aircraft will fall
out of the sky, it'll do something weird on
command and control etc.
So how do we go forward.
Well we're developing new technology with
our partners.
So we're doing what's called detect and avoid.
We have a sensor onboard our aircraft or on
the ground that sees a manned or unmanned
aircraft and either tells the pilot I need
to avoid or autonomously avoids we've done
one or two autonomous- purely autonomous most
of time we have a pilot in the loop.
Once we have that technology we can put it
on these unmanned aircraft that aren't type
certified and FAA will have confidence after
a whole bunch of testing which we are doing
that they can turn them loose without causing
damage.
So we're about to do a detect and avoid shoot
out over the pipeline in a month.
So those members of our team who happen to
be in the room I apologize in advance.
We know this is going to be a crazy month.
We also happen to be working with the FAA
on breaking that beyond visual line of sight
barrier and for that we're using the U.S.
integration pilot program.
This was actually created through an executive
order by President Trump a little over a year
ago.
The proposals the first round was due over
Thanksgiving the second round was due immediately
after Christmas.
We were not happy campers.
And the whole purpose of this is to accelerate
the advance of unmanned aircraft in the airspace
especially the commercial.
149 state local and tribal government teams
gave up their Christmases.
They gave 10.
We got one.
We also did a lot of cursing over Christmas.
So what's our goal.
Our goal is for Alaska 24 hours a day seven
days a week 365 days a year.
Day night doesn't matter operations beyond
visual line of sight in the state of Alaska.
That is our goal and we've got a really good
team.
So if you look at this you'll recognize government
agencies you'll recognize Boroughs.
We happen to have end users.
We happen to have people who are operators.
We have a lot of local operators.
We have service providers of various kinds.
We have one of the biggest unmanned aircraft
operators this- Insitu- has one of the two
types certified aircraft they've flown over
a million hours overseas so they have a lot
of experience.
We had a powerhouse group we won and the FAA
has been helping us.
So we'd like to guess how many people right
now the FAA are contributing to the IPP to
support the 10 sites?
140.
So we have got amazing support in trying to
move things forward.
They are trying to get us to yes you can do
it.
So we are helping them write the rules and
regulations and gather data they need.
So what are our priorities in terms of what
we proposed and what they picked.
Linear infrastructure monitoring- the pipelines.
And then they decided they had enough capacity
to let us do medical supply delivery.
In addition because it's so important up here.
It's amazing how sending them for a trip around
the fjord you know turnagain arm and said
you know you can go around here or you could
just go across.
Makes a difference.
So early wins that true beyond visual line
of sight.
Very very important it's one of the first
civil ones given and we're going for the part
135 that air carrier certificate to be able
to do commercial.
So unmanned systems Alaska's leading.
We've proposed two aircraft for type certification.
Remember I said you have the part 135.
So we're sending a company through it and
we have to have type certified aircraft.
So we're putting two through the process and
the FAA is doing an accelerated process for
us through the UAS integration pilot program.
So we've got two aircraft we have this Skyfront
Perimeter and we have the Sea Hunter so the
Perimeter is a 33 pound maximum takeoff weight
quadcopter doesn't look that big right.
That's six and a half feet.
That is actually a very large aircraft.
It is a gas electric hybrid.
So it's got about five and a half hours endurance
can carry about nine pounds.
Notice it is not scaring the cows.
That's a good sign.
If the cows aren't running, you're doing good.
And then we have our Sea Hunter and you'll
notice she's in the pretty UAF colors.
So this aircraft as I said in an earlier slide
is eleven and a half hours endurance at about
75 knots.
She can carry about 30 pounds.
So we are trying to get her type certified
through the United States.
Turns out Canada also wants to type certify
her.
So we're gonna do both processes simultaneously.
And she until recently had never been taken
off or landed by hand.
She's completely flown by computer.
We have precision G.P.S. on her.
We tell her where to land.
And that is where she lands.
She is a beautiful system.
So here she comes in 16 foot wingspan.
So the path forward here is gonna be proof
of principle.
We're gonna do some medical supply delivery.
We're going to work in similar climates and
out of similar airports and lead all that
data back into the FAA and transport Canada
is helping us go a long way towards this.
Medical supply delivery.
So we're gonna prove it.
We think probably June flying from Indian
to Hope.
Why is that such a good example.
We all know this road right.
What does it do.
Avalanche landslide.
All those other good things.
So if you block this road instead of it being
you know an hour and around it's now much
much longer if you've been able to get there
and to Soldotna is a couple hours right.
So that community Hope is kind of cut off
but we could fly you know four and a half
miles.
It's not going to take us very long to get
us supplies across.
So we're going to start with an incredibly
hazardous cargo.
Q tips.
This is how you get around the FAA hazardous
material carrying issue and we're gonna go
ahead and run that once we've proven that
once we get the commercial and we get that
beyond visual line of sight.
What's the logical thing to do in Alaska for
medical supply delivery.
Exactly.
The serum run from Nenana to Nome we'll be
number one.
We'll beat the dogs every time.
So we're doing a lot of testing with transport
Canada on how do you operate in northern environments.
Canada is letting us operate beyond visual
line of sight.
So we are getting data for them feeding it
back and then we're feeding it back to the
FAA.
So this is Sea Hunter on an icy runway.
And so we're taking off and landing on the
runway.
This is a challenge for things like our Gray
Eagles up here.
So we're getting information that will help
you know our government in addition to Canada.
They were cleaning the runway a little too
well we had to tell them to stop cleaning
it so well.
We also do night operations.
So this is aviation standard lighting and
that is Sea Hunter coming in.
So this last summer the team hated me.
I sent them away for a month.
They flew 3000 nautical miles beyond visual
line of sight over the St. Lawrence Seaway
for Canada.
They were looking for North Atlantic Right
Whales because if you spot them in the waters
you have to slow the shipping down.
So here we go.
Here's a whale.
North Atlantic Right Whale they also saw Blue
whales and other things we could determine
whether the aircraft was in icing cloud etc.
And here is our Sea Hunter operating in a
commercial airport with commercial air traffic.
I could tell if the guys were at work because
I could come in put in the tail number for
unmanned aircraft in a flight tracking program
like you'd use for Alaska Airlines and determine
when they took off when they were going to
land where they were in the pattern.
No I was not spying on them but I didn't know
if they were working I didn't have to bug
them to find out.
And then as I told you we've got the centuries
these will be put to work here in Fairbanks
shortly.
These are strong aircraft we'll be using for
wildfires and other capabilities and we'll
be doing things like sea ice mapping.
You can do this ahead of ships determine how
to get through here without breaking the ice.
You know you want to minimize how many pressure
ridges etc. you encounter.
So some of our next steps we're actually working
with FAI to fly off of the airport in the
next year.
We're hoping by the end of summer we may get
to go Sentry will probably be the first aircraft
because it's got great nose cameras on it.
We're doing the detect and avoid technology
in our comparison over Trans Alaska pipeline.
We're requesting longer and longer beyond
visual line of sight corridors as we develop
the technology.
We put it on the aircraft.
We ask for more space.
They give us more space than we test the aircraft.
Technology is more advance it.
So it's an iterative process guaranteeing
that we maintain safety and we actually are
going to do some fun counter drone and counter-counter
drone work.
So right now this is a really exciting time
to be doing unmanned aircraft in Alaska.
The technologies are getting closer and closer
for us to be able to do the missions that
are important here the long distance missions
you know the doing the wildlife count.
So we don't have to put a biologist and a
pilot in a plane and go fly through the mountains
looking for sheep.
We've all known friends who've died doing
those kind of operations and we're going to
be getting that current air carrier certificate.
We'll start doing cargo operations here in
Alaska.
We're working with a bunch of organizations
that are trying to develop aircraft that can
carry multiple hundreds of pounds.
So we're going to be moving things along those
lines forward.
And once we learn how to do that it's going
to be an aviation gold rush here in Alaska.
So with that I'm going to say thank you for
your attention and do we happen to have any
questions.
