Page 23 - Forum-2020-JulyToSeptember

By Thomas A. Farrier, Chair, ISASI Unmanned Aircraft
Systems Working Group, and Principal Safety Analyst,
ClancyJG International. Gerard de Rover, Defense Safety
Inspector, the Netherlands, presented this paper during
ISASI 2019.

Should lessons from past accidents, overlap among these issues, of course, ration of turbojet, and later fanjet, technol-
or even very recent accidents, involving but the challenges to be dealt with moved ogy into airliner design allowed maximum
manned aircraft be applied to making forward along the following general lines: gross takeoff weights and corresponding
unmanned aviation safer? • Make airframes strong enough to cabin and cargo revenues to increase, even
Are past accident scenarios in danger withstand the stresses of flight. as their relative simplicity increased their
of being repeated due to the expansion of • Make engines as reliable as possible. reliability and, eventually, their efficiency.
minimally regulated unmanned aircraft • Find ways of making operations at Communications, navigation, and surveil-
operations in the midst of manned air- night and in adverse weather practi- lance capabilities have evolved—sometimes
craft? cal and safe. individually, sometimes in parallel—to make
air traffic management steadily more effi-
• Find ways of protecting the occu-
Safety Developments in Manned pants of aircraft from harm during cient while providing both greater system
Aviation: A Brief Overview normal and adverse conditions. capacity and safe separation.
The successful growth of aviation always • Develop means of managing growing Sharpening the focus on safety, new
should be looked at through the prism numbers of aircraft in the vicinity of aircraft are certified in consideration of
of the advances in safety that supported airports. experience accumulated over time. Those
its progress. The viability of commer- • Develop means of monitoring aircraft incorporating new materials or manufac-
cial aviation itself is directly traceable movements over large distances and turing processes are subject to close review
to public confidence in it as a safe and long routes. of their novel attributes and have to prove
reliable form of transportation. If aircraft their safety against long-standing standards
accidents continued to occur at the rates • Identify areas requiring surveillance suitably adjusted to gauge performance as
to keep aircraft separated.
seen during the 1930s, the commercial opposed to conformity to possibly outmod-
airline industry itself never would have • Identify environments within which ed guidance. This is a realistic approach to
been more than an expensive and risky civil and military operations might balancing the need to minimize risk with
niche instead of an integral part of global come into conflict and develop rules the need to encourage innovation, again de-
commerce. and procedures applicable to both. veloped through careful consideration and
It always is appropriate to revisit how • Establish requirements for IFR and years of experience adjusting certification
the current level of safety in aviation VFR operations that protect the for- standards as needed in response to both
has been achieved, including why we do mer while enabling the latter. identified hazards and new technology. The
some of the things we do in certifying • Establish requirements for airspace past matters.
aircraft and regulating their operations. based on the control and safety chal-
Many accidents that led to new rules and lenges that different densities and Are Manned and Unmanned
preventive measures have themselves complexities of traffic can create. Aircraft Different?
receded into the past, so it is valuable to Each of the above has seen incre- As we move from the development of
be reminded from time to time that little mental and occasionally revolutionary manned aviation toward the blossoming
in the body of rules governing aviation is improvements over time, often resulting of unmanned aviation, this would seem
arbitrary or capricious in both safety and economic benefits. For to be a purely rhetorical question with
Consider how aviation and aircraft ben- example, aircraft construction techniques an obvious answer. Unmanned aircraft
efited from examination of safety needs have become steadily more sophisticated, are dependent on either extensive and
identified through crashes and their increasing strength and occupant protec- inflexible preprograming or a two-way
investigations. There always has been tion while reducing weight. The incorpo- datalink allowing a “remote pilot-in-com-
July-September 2020 ISASI Forum • 23