Not a day goes by when there isn’t some new development — positive or negative — about unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and their growing presence in national airspace systems. As this issue of AeroSafety World was going to press, there were unconfirmed reports out of London that a British Airways Airbus A320 on approach to London’s Heathrow Airport may have been struck by a “drone.” The airplane landed safely, and an investigation was launched — as were dozens of stories about the growing number of UAS aircraft sightings by airline pilots and the threat that UAS may pose to aviation safety.
On the other end of the spectrum are persistent calls for regulators to speed up the promulgation of rules governing the safe operation of UAS in civilian airspace. The rationale for the urgency often revolves around the potential commercial, humanitarian and efficiency benefits that society may realize once UAS, known in International Civil Aviation Organization parlance as …
