A localized study designed to learn where small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) are most often flown and to gauge the likelihood of a conflict with manned aircraft has found that nearly 97 percent of sUAS flights in the Daytona Beach, Florida, area during the study period were within 5 mi (8 km) of an airport.
The study, published in an Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) journal,1 gathered data indicating that 49 percent of sUAS operating locations are in residential areas. Other frequently used sUAS flight locations are in commercial, industrial or public places, “primarily in parking lots or other adjacent open areas,” the report said.
The report, “Evaluating Small UAS Near Midair Collision Risk Using AeroScope and ADS-B,” noted ongoing efforts by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and others to prevent unsafe and noncompliant sUAS operations, and cited data from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing that from June 2007 thro…
