Earlier this month, Joby Aviation and Reliable Robotics operated self-flying Cessna 208B Grand Caravans during the U.S. Air Force’s Agile Flag 24-3 exercise at Mojave Air and Space Port (KMHV) in California. The goal of the five-day campaign was to weigh how the technology could support the Air Force’s Agile Combat Employment concept, which it describes as a “proactive and reactive operational scheme…to increase resiliency and survivability while generating combat power.”

Airmen from the 23rd Wing at Moody Air Force Base (KVAD) in Georgia and 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base (KBAB) in California used technology from Reliable and Joby—which in June acquired autonomous flight provider Xwing—to fly the souped-up Caravan across California and Nevada.

“Previously, we faced a tough choice: either use a cargo aircraft with all the associated expenses or forgo the flight altogether, which created difficult decisions for warfighting commanders,” said Colonel Max Bremer, management officer of the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command Special Access Program. “The return on investment with this technology is significant.”

The Air Force has awarded Reliable, Joby, and Xwing Phase II and III small business innovation research (SBIR) contracts through Autonomy Prime, a technology program within AFWERX, the Air Force’s innovation arm. AFWERX offers a sort of quid pro quo: Manufacturers get a controlled environment where they can perform flight trials and development work, in exchange for early military access to the technology.

Autonomy Prime earlier this year invited both Reliable and Joby to participate in February’s Agile Flag 24-1 exercise.

“We wanted to build on that success by bringing both vendors back for Agile Flag 24-3, which imposes more realistic constraints on the training participants,” said Ian Clowes of AFWERX Prime stakeholder engagement.

Autonomous flight software, in particular, is in high demand.

A Caravan equipped with Reliable or Joby’s technology can taxi, take off, fly up to 1,150 miles, and land with 1,200 pounds of cargo. According to the Air Force, that translates to an operating cost between $1,200 and $1,600 per hour, compared to more than $7,000 for a C-130J Hercules and $20,000 for a C-17A Globemaster.

The autonomous aircraft would be best suited for carrying small cargo, freeing up larger cargo aircraft to transport large parts or weapons.

“Looking ahead, if the Air Force adopts autonomous aircraft for asset transport in forward locations, it will increase sorties and flying hours by reducing delays in aircraft maintenance,” said Staff Sergeant Miguel Sarmiento, aircraft parts store supervisor for the 633rd Logistics Readiness Squadron.

During Agile Flag 24-3, airmen were tasked with deploying fighters to meet a mission objective while contending with “adversary activities” that complicated their goal. For the purposes of the exercise, cargo aircraft had limited ability to deliver the parts needed to keep the fighters flying.

That was no problem for Joby and Reliable, whose technology powered an autonomous Cessna across 47 flights covering more than 6,600 miles while operators watched them from a mobile ground control station. Personnel carried a laptop and satellite communication terminal in a small backpack—no additional infrastructure was needed. Reliable said its flights also included an onboard safety pilot.

“In this exercise scenario, where distance is a significant challenge, this capability is helping us overcome it,” said Colonel Charles Hanson, commander of the 9th Mission Support Group.

Added Captain Mackenzie Thompson, flight commander of the 480th Sortie Generation: “My job is to ensure we have safe and reliable aircraft for the mission. AFWERX has been awesome in helping us transport parts quickly, which has saved us a lot of time and manpower.”

Joby, for example, delivered cargo from Edwards Air Force Base (KEDW) to Southern California Logistics Airport (KVCV) in Victorville, California. The company said it flew more than 3,900 miles between nine military bases and public airports, performing a taxi, takeoff, and landing at each site.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the U.S. Air Force as we further develop the suite of technologies that could enable greater automation or full autonomy, first on the Caravan and then on numerous other aircraft types,” said Maxime Gariel, autonomy lead at Joby.

The company added that it plans to use autonomy to speed up the completion of its AFWERX contract and, potentially, open up new contract opportunities.

According to Reliable, Agile Flag 24-1 was supposed to represent the Indo-Pacific region, with some locations separated by hundreds of miles. The company said it transported critical cargo to eight locations on demand, with leadership from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center also in attendance.

“Autonomy in small platforms reduces risk and opens up the ability to land in more places including damaged runways or unimproved surfaces,” said Bremer.

Prior to the exercise, Reliable obtained military airworthiness and flight readiness approvals for expanded operations. The company’s aircraft-agnostic system is the only full aircraft automation software with an FAA-approved certification plan.

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The Yukon features carbon composite construction and a nickel leading edge. It can be used on both the wheeled and floated Cessna Caravan utilizing the PT6A-114A 675 SHP or PT6A-140 867 SHP engines.

• READ MORE: FLYING Unveils ‘Oshkosh Live’ Video Programming Lineup

According to Wipaire, the Yukon can reduce takeoff distances by up to 26 percent from land and 31 percent on water. The propeller weighs 137 pounds, which is lighter than others available by about 19 pounds. It also has optional pitch locks, and according to the company, will not change the stall speed of the aircraft. 

The Yukon is available with TKS or electric deice, or both.

“The successful flight performance with the Yukon is a testament to the collaboration between Hartzell Propeller and Wipaire engineers,” said Chuck Wiplinger, president and CEO of Wipaire. “The increased efficiency and power are a game changer for our customers and presale deposits are strong.”

• READ MORE: Army of Volunteers Gives AirVenture Its Lift

According to the company website, “Wipaire has developed over 100 STCs for the modification of aircraft, including float installations, engine and propeller upgrades, gross weight increases, instrument panel and Cessna 206 right-hand-door installations.

The post Wipaire Obtains FAA Approval for Yukon Prop STC appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

AFWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force, has awarded autonomy technology provider Xwing military airworthiness for its self-flying Cessna 208B Grand Caravan in the form of a Military Flight Release (MFR), allowing it to perform cargo missions for the Air Force in unrestricted airspace.

The approval designates Xwing as a contractor-owned-and-operated public aircraft operation (PAO) and is the first under that designation for Autonomy Prime, the autonomous flight division of AFWERX.

After receiving airworthiness, Xwing’s autonomous Caravan transported time-sensitive cargo during the Air Force’s weeklong Agile Flag 24-1 Joint Force exercise. Over the course of daily flights—which covered about 2,800 nm, 22 hours of flight time, and eight public and military airports—it demonstrated the ability to integrate autonomous aircraft into the national airspace system. Agile Flag ran from January 22 to February 4.

“Achieving an Air Force MFR certification is a momentous milestone, removing the barrier to transition and unlocking key testing and experimentation opportunities,” said Kate Brown, deputy branch chief of AFWERX Autonomy Prime. “Agile Flag was an opportunity to showcase autonomous light cargo logistics and demonstrate operational relevance and increased technical readiness.”

The exercise included the first autonomous logistics mission for the Air Force, flying from March Air Reserve Base (KRIV) outside Los Angeles to McClellan Airfield at Sacramento McClellan Airport (KMCC) in California. The autonomous aircraft also visited California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base (KVBG), Meadows Field Airport (KBFL), and Fresno Yosemite International Airport (KFAT).

“Our technology has proven effective over hundreds of successful autonomous flights,” said Craig Milliard, Xwing flight test manager, who remotely supervised the flights from a ground control station at Sacramento McClellan Airport. “This exercise gave us the opportunity to stretch the operational envelope into new environments, day and night, with real-world cargo, proving that we can effectively complete Air Force mission objectives.”

The Exercise

Xwing operates N101XW: a modified Grand Caravan with a 41-foot length, 15-foot height, 52-foot wingspan, and maximum payload of 3,000 pounds. Since its first autonomous flight in 2020, N101XW has flown more than 500 autonomous hours across 250 missions. According to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), data collected from those tests show the aircraft can fly about 1,000 nm with 1,200 pounds of cargo.

Following “rigorous safety and technical assessments,” the Air Force awarded Xwing the MFR. With it, the company is authorized to deliver official Air Force cargo with automated taxis, takeoffs, and landings, to both military and civilian airfields.

The goal of Agile Flag was to show how autonomous flight could deliver critical, time-sensitive cargo quickly and cost effectively. The Air Force gauged how autonomy could serve as a “force multiplier and risk mitigator” for the military’s agile combat employment (ACE) concept. ACE involves the dispersal of aircraft and equipment between major military hubs and smaller airfields to improve resilience and survivability.

The exercise brought together Xwing, fellow autonomous flight provider Reliable Robotics, and the Air Force Air Combat Command (ACC) and Air Mobility Command (AMC) to evaluate the technology for ACE applications. According to the Air Force, a core component of the strategy is the ability to deliver to multiple unsurveyed locations—or contested, degraded, or operationally limited (CDO) environments—with little or no ground support, on a moment’s notice.

Xwing and its ground control station arrived at McClellan Airfield, the headquarters for Agile Flag, on January 26, where airmen watched autonomous takeoffs and landings of its modified Cessna through a live feed.

But when airmen in the 4th Fighter Wing from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, needed to transport equipment from March ARB to McClellan, the demonstration became an operational exercise. Personnel loaded the equipment onto Xwing’s autonomous Caravan and completed the flight that day.

“The point of AFWERX is to get emerging and operationally relevant technologies into the hands of warfighters,” said Ian Clowes, stakeholder engagement lead for AFWERX Prime. “So I coordinated with the 4th Fighter Wing for nearly a year, and the initial pitch was for us to show up and make sure we were not interfering with the exercise. But plans changed, and we got to demonstrate the capability in an operational environment.”

Throughout the week, the Air Force assigned Xwing cargo missions based on real-time logistics needs, such as the delivery of sensitive weather equipment and other critical cargo. The exercise required it to fly through the congested Los Angeles basin, where the Caravan complied with air traffic controller instructions and integrated with heavy traffic at March ARB.

AFWERX said the aircraft delivered critical parts faster than conventional counterparts and reduced the number of requests for traditional, heavy-lift aircraft. These, according to Xwing, are two key advantages autonomous flight brings to the table for military commanders.

“This technology is a game-changer because the Air Force could fly in contested areas without the loss of life, and it’s much less expensive than using traditional cargo aircraft,” said Master Sergeant Brian Crea, Air Force 3rd Wing director of innovation.

“We saw firsthand during Agile Flag that the use of Xwing’s autonomous aircraft eliminated the need to fly a larger aircraft such as a [Lockheed Martin] C-130 to deliver critical cargo to the warfighter on short notice,” said Maxime Gariel, president, co-founder, and chief technology officer of Xwing. “When you fly missions autonomously, you operate with the speed and efficiency required for dispersed ACE operations, delivering cargo and personnel at a much lower cost and risk.”

Autonomy on the Rise?

Xwing’s participation in Agile Flag is part of its recently awarded Phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with AFWERX, a continuation of the Phase II contract it obtained in May.

Autonomy Prime, with which Xwing worked over the course of the exercise, is a new technology program within AFWERX that partners with the private sector to accelerate testing and deliver new solutions to the military.

During Agile Flag, Autonomy Prime also collaborated with Reliable Robotics—which, like Xwing, retrofits Cessna Caravans with automated flight systems—through the company’s own Phase III SBIR agreement. Its dual-use control station landed at McClellan on January 30. Within minutes, AFWERX said, the system was ready to remotely operate self-flying aircraft at Hollister Municipal Airport (KCVH) more than 120 miles away.

With Agile Flag now wrapped up, Autonomy Prime will collect data to gauge the effectiveness of autonomous logistics aircraft in an ACE construct. Those results will then be analyzed and briefed to Air Force leadership.

“This demonstration was the first step in showcasing how autonomy and light cargo logistics can be leveraged in an ACE construct,” said Brown. “Moving forward, Autonomy Prime is continuing to investigate integration into future exercises to further refine concept of operations and use case. In parallel, Autonomy Prime is working with requirements owners and vendors to inform future requirements.”

Autonomous flight systems are steadily progressing toward certification, with a couple of key firsts in recent months.

In addition to Xwing’s milestone autonomous logistics mission for the Air Force, Reliable in December completed a historic cargo flight. The demonstration, conducted with FAA approval, marked the first flight of a remotely piloted Caravan with no one on board.

Xwing is also working closely with the regulator. It claims to own the first “standard” FAA uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) certification project, which aims to meet the full airworthiness safety requirements for passenger aircraft.

Both companies intend to eventually move beyond Cessna Caravans and retrofit other aircraft, but they will begin with small cargo models. Reliable has a partnership with FedEx, while Xwing is collaborating with United Parcel Service.

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Reliable Robotics, which completed the landmark flight using its remotely operated aircraft system (ROAS), claims to be the first in the industry to agree on a testing and analysis campaign for these systems with the FAA. The company will demonstrate how its ROAS aligns with the regulator’s safety and performance requirements for operations in the contiguous U.S. and Alaska.

“We are immensely pleased with the FAA and the positive working relationship we’ve established together—it is clear that we share the common goal of improving aircraft safety through automation,” said Chris Schulenberg, certification program manager at Reliable.

Reliable’s ROAS is intended to reduce or eliminate accidents due to pilot error or impairment, such as controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) and loss of control in flight (LOC-I), which it says account for the bulk of fatal aviation accidents. Initially, the firm will supplement personnel in the cockpit rather than replace them. It intends for operations to include a single onboard pilot to perform “abnormal procedures.”

The means of compliance for assessing the ROAS’ navigation and autopilot systems have been accepted through the FAA’s issue paper process. The blueprint sets out criteria for approving the technology and comprises a portion of the company’s supplemental type certification (STC) process.

That campaign kicked off in 2022, when the FAA approved Reliable’s G-1 issue paper. The G-1 defines the certification basis for its STC on the Cessna Caravan, including navigation and autopilot systems. The company’s certification plan for continuous autopilot engagement—a road map that uses existing FAA regulations and processes for normal and transport category aircraft, with no special conditions or exemptions—was accepted in June.

The regulator has also conducted several test flights with Reliable through its Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Airspace Management Demonstration program, culminating in its signoff on December’s historic flight. The Caravan used in that demonstration—a loan from potential customer FedEx—is one of many Reliable intends to retrofit with its automated tech. 

The company is working with both Textron Aviation and Textron eAviation—the sustainable flight subsidiary of Textron—to install its ROAS onto the popular model. Textron has delivered more than 3,000 Caravans, making it one of the most widely used turboprops in the world. Reliable’s remotely piloted Caravan could introduce same- or next-day shipments of time-sensitive deliveries to locations currently served by piloted models.

However, the firm’s tech is also designed to be aircraft agnostic. It could one day be equipped on other Textron designs or those of different manufacturers. The company says this could even include cargo aircraft designed for 3,000-plus-pound payloads—small cargo aircraft are a possible candidate for early autonomous operations, with low risk due to the lack of passengers.

In addition to the FAA, Reliable has completed watershed technology demonstrations with NASA and AFWERX, the innovation arm of the U.S. Air Force. In January, it was awarded military airworthiness approval to begin further flight testing and perform operational missions for the Air Force using remotely piloted aircraft.

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The post FAA, Reliable Robotics Agree on Testing Criteria for Automated Aircraft System appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The wrongful death suit was filed by law firms Stritmatter Kessler Koehler Moore and Wisner Baum on behalf of Precup. King County, Washington, names Textron Aviation Inc., Mistequay Group Ltd. (Aeromotion by Textron Aviation), Ace Aviation Inc., Raisbeck Engineering Inc., and “John Doe one through ten” as defendants. These are the businesses that designed, manufactured, and maintained the Cessna Caravan.

As previously reported by FLYING and according to the preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the right wing separated from the aircraft during flight.

• READ MORE: NTSB Releases Details of Caravan Crash That Killed 4

About the Mission

The purpose of the flight was to test Raisbeck Engineering’s aerodynamic reduction system. Precup, 33, was working for Raisbeck as the instrumentation engineer during the test flights. The Raisbeck company makes modifications for corporate and business aircraft to improve performance and efficiency. The Caravan was on loan to Raisbeck Engineering. According to the complaint, the aircraft was owned by Copper Mountain Aviation LLC.

According to the NTSB, Raisbeck holds the supplemental type certificate (STC) for an aerodynamic drag reduction system (DRS) on the Cessna 208B. The purpose of the flight was to test the ability to expand the applicability of that DRS to the Cessna 208B EX model.

Raisbeck noted the flight was conducted prior to the installation of a Raisbeck modification, which is “standard industry practice that allows aviation engineering firms to establish baseline aircraft performance under a highly structured flight profile to later measure and compare the change in performance after any proposed modifications are installed. The aircraft was in this initial testing phase and had not yet been modified in any way.”

The accident happened during the last of a five-flight series to establish baseline performance. In addition to Precup, both pilots and the test director were killed. Several flights with several test pilots were completed in the days leading up to the accident.

The first flight took place on November 15 and consisted of three segments totaling 1.1 hours. The purpose of the flight was for the pilots to build familiarity with the aircraft and a ferry flight to have the airplane’s weight and balance performed. The next day the aircraft was flown for a total of 4.6 hours to establish baseline data for future test flights for both mid-center-of-gravity (CG) cruise flight and forward CG stall speeds. On November 17 two more test flights were completed, for a total of 1.2 hours to test the aft CG static stability. The last flight on the 17th was cut short with only half of the planned test maneuvers completed because a crewmember in the back of the airplane was feeling ill. 

The final flight took place the morning of November 18. The intention of the flight was to complete the test maneuvers from the prior day, which consisted of testing the aircraft’s stall performance.

The aircraft’s radar track shows it taking off from Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT) around 9:25 a.m. PST and heading north. The conditions were VFR as the airplane climbed to about 9,500 feet msl and began a series of turns. The airplane flew for approximately 45 minutes, its altitude varying between about 6,500 feet to 10,275 feet.

At 10:17 a.m., the track data showed the airplane in a climbing left turn. It was just about to complete a 360-degree turn when it abruptly entered a sharp 180-degree left turn to the west. The last 12 seconds of the radar capture show the airplane in a descent exceeding 14,000 fpm and gradually lessened to 8,700 fpm at the last report. The main wreckage was located about 2,145 feet east of the last recorded track data. The right wing was located some distance away.

The pilot who had flown the test flights the day before told investigators that it appeared that the flight crew were conducting the second-to-last maneuver on the card, which specified: 96 knots indicated airspeed; flaps in landing configuration; 930 foot-pounds of torque; propeller rpm fully forward; and accelerated 30-degree bank to the left. 

Witnesses on the ground reported seeing the airplane “fall apart” in midair then corkscrew to the ground. The event was captured by a security camera, and several witnesses reported seeing a white plume of smoke when they observed the airplane break into pieces. The fuselage appeared to be rotating about its longitudinal axis in a nose-low attitude.

Investigators noted that the right wing was found 200 yards from the main wreckage. The main wreckage, consisting of the engine, cockpit (and cargo pod), cabin, vertical stabilizer, and rudder, was partially consumed by fire. The right-wing strut had separated from the fuselage attachment point but remained attached to the wing. The right flap was separated into numerous pieces and scattered among the debris field. The left wing separated from the fuselage, although it was located adjacent to the main wreckage. The flap remained attached and was found in the retracted position.

The NTSB is still investigating the cause of the accident.

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Today’s Top Pick is a 2017 GippsAero GA8 Airvan.

GippsAero got its start during the 1970s as Gippsland Aeronautics, an Australian company specializing in maintaining and modifying aircraft. During the late 1980s, the company developed an agricultural crop-spraying aircraft called the GA200 followed by the GA8 utility aircraft, which first flew in 1995. Indian industrial conglomerate Mahindra Group acquired a controlling stake in GippsAero in 2009 but halted production in 2020. Last week, company co-founder George Morgan announced that he had bought out Mahindra’s interest and plans to restart production in Australia.

Airvans are rare sights in the U.S., but I spotted one last summer on the ramp at Hancock County/Bar Harbor Airport (KBHB) in Maine. Its wide fuselage and high, strut-braced wing helped it blend in with the Cessna Caravans and 206s operating there. That seems appropriate as the GA8 was designed to fill a perceived gap in the market between the six-seat piston 206 and 10-seat turboprop Caravan.

This 2017 GA8 has 1,000 hours on the airframe, its Lycoming TIO-540 engine and its Hartzell propeller. The panel includes Garmin G500 flight display, GTN 750, GTN 650, and an engine analyzer. The aircraft’s interior is set up in an eight-seat configuration for passengers.    

Commercial operators can find many uses for the GippsAero GA8 easily, but so can everyday pilots. If you want an airplane that can haul your immediate family plus a few cousins or close friends, or a family of four with lots of baggage, you should consider this 2017 GippsAero GA8 Airvan, which is available for $800,000 on AircraftForSale.

You can arrange financing of the aircraft through FLYING Finance. For more information, email info@flyingfinance.com.

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The post The 2017 GippsAero GA8 Airvan Is a Utilitarian ‘AircraftForSale’ Top Pick appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Kyle Martin, vice president, European affairs for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), opened the conference by setting the scene. “I’m surprised to believe the rulemaking for what we’re going to discuss…started 30 years ago.”

“We’ve gone through a journey to where we are today—we have our regulatory regime in place, we have operations happening, but there’s definitely a massive untapped potential.”

The history of the rule—known as COM-SET IMC—began in 1993 with a meeting in Rome, Italy, and ICAO published the  initial standards and recommended practices—SARPs—in 2005. EASA and QinetiQ conducted a study that had an outcome supporting SET commercial operations with the appropriate safety mitigations in 2007, further paving the way. The rulemaking itself was launched in 2012, and the official proposed rulemaking was published in 2014.

In March 2017, GAMA celebrated at AERO Friedrichshafen the codification of the brand-new regulation—2017-363—and operators could ostensibly move forward, utilizing it to guide single-engine turboprop flying for commercial purposes, unlocking that potential. Six years on, that’s only very partially true.

Defining COM-SET IMC

The U.S. has allowed for the operation of single-engine turboprop aircraft—such as the Pilatus PC-12, TBM series, and Cessna Caravan—in instrument meteorological conditions since the publication in August 1997 of a simple and clear update to FAR 135.163 (62 FR 42374) stating the equipment requirements for single-engine turbine aircraft operating under IFR on a Part 135 air operator’s certificate (AOC). Canada secured its approval even earlier, under Policy Letter 80 in 1993. Until 2017, there was no correlating approval under EASA regulatory framework. 

However, that final rule contains requirements beyond what has been required by the U.S. and Canadian aviation authorities. It includes:

• the requirement to use routes or operate within areas “where surfaces are available that permit a safe forced landing to be exceuted”
• the need for proof that “an acceptable level of turbine engine reliability [has been] achieved in service by the world fleet for the particular airframe-engine combination”
• specific maintenance instructions included in the operator’s maintenance program, plus the need for an engine monitoring program or automatic trend monitoring, and “a propulsion and associated systems reliability program”
• flight crew composition and training/recurrent check program
• special operating procedures, including in-flight shutdown (IFSD)
• a “safety risk assessment” 
• a list of required equipment significantly longer than that in FAR 135.163

While these requirements may sound generally reasonable, in practice it has been a different story with operators who might seek compliance, but instead find alternate means to conduct business.

According to the folks at GAMA, with the EU’s larger population (739 million) and aggregate economy ($16.6 trillion) larger than the U.S. (314 million and $15.7 trillion, respectively), the disconnect is striking. At the time of the publication of the EASA rule, there were only 12 single-engine turboprops operating under EASA exemption, versus a fleet of 673 in the U.S.—many of those Cessna Caravans delivering cargo for FedEx, DHL, and other entities. Following EU implementation, that number has risen—to a mere 60 aircraft.

Yet the single-engine turboprop market has been a strong driver of growth in the industry overall, selling well with updated, more efficient models entering the mix, in high demand. Innovation surges throughout the turboprop segment as well, with advancements such as autothrottles, digital data management, and safety protocols like Garmin’s Autoland. So there appears to be a discrepancy between the fleet numbers and those on commercial operating certificates: “Only a small fraction of that [fleet] is actually working in the commercial IMC market,” said Martin, where their efficiency, reliability, and improvements to safety can benefit the public. One example: JetFly, represented at the SETOps conference, has 40 PC-12s in its fleet, yet not on an AOC. Contrast this with Tradewind Aviation, based in Connecticut, which just took delivery of the first of 20 more PC-12s to bring its fleet to 38 of the turboprops. All of those Tradewind aircraft have flown safely across the north Atlantic Ocean from the OEM’s production facilities in Switzerland.

As it turns out, the restrictions placed within the regulation are archaic and constrain the true potential of the modern single-engine turboprop fleet. “Operators are essentially not able to take full advantage of the high efficiency and reliability of the PC-12, and other single-engine turbine aircraft,” said Martin. “ They have to do strange routings to keep within a distance of landing sites, they have to go through an extensive bureaucratic process with their national authorities to get those routes approved, reviewed, questioned—it’s taking a lot of extra effort for no added [value].”

Performance-based rules should allow the operator to follow the intent of the rule and gain some ease of compliance. “But the inspector level at authorities,” added Martin, “they like to ask for paperwork, documentation, and justification—and re-justification. So there’s a mass of uncertainty out there.” Small operators feel that burden acutely, as they don’t have the staff to deal with the extra workload.

Some within EASA recognize that the industry suffers from over-regulation, a feeling that representatives from the agency revealed on Thursday at AERO during a report-out. The timing provided an opportunity for the assembled members of the SETOps conference to come up with specific, actionable recommendations to take to EASA to help streamline the current regulations and make them more workable.

In-Flight Shutdowns and Safe Landing Sites

Ralph Menzel spent 33 years flying as an operator and pilot prior to joining EASA in 2005. He served as the PCM for Pilatus, among other contacts with the segment. Menzel pointed out several pain points that he’d observed, including the difficulty in identifying landing fields outside of aerodromes and “getting them discussed with the national authorities.” These landing spots are significant, as, per the rule, an operator must be generally within gliding distance of a previously-deemed-suitable spot to land at all times along the route.

But achieving the needed improvements through another rulemaking Menzel feared would take “another 30 years. The easiest task is to [make the updates] through a safety promotion, interpretive material—things that we can put together right now.”

In-flight shutdown procedures form another critical area of needed clarification and work, along with safe forced landing site selection. A working group centered around the Luxembourg civil aviation authority, DAC-LU, has begun, with “good discussions already,” according to Menzel. 

For example, some countries are imposing operating weather minima on safe forced landing sites, regardless of the fact that when the engine-out approach is to an airport or aerodrome, the standard approach minima cannot be used because the aircraft is not following the published approach path. Conversely, if the safe forced landing site is not an aerodrome, no weather minima exist in the first place—and there’s typically no observation provided.

To counter this, DAC-LU conducted a study putting flight crews through a series of 50 IFSD approaches while wearing view-limiting goggles simulating IFR conditions and determined that with proper training, pilots could make the approaches safely in all weather conditions. The plan is to produce special guidance materials and an NPA for the next update to the rule.

Another problem surrounds the availability and suitability of the flight simulators for use in the required initial and recurrent training for COM-SET IMC approval, with only one available previously—a Cessna Caravan sim in Wichita, Kansas. “To take an aircraft out of revenue service, first to do a class rating course and the ACC, I probably need the aircraft out of service for six days, seven days—versus the simulator. Look, I’d love a full flight simulator based in [London] Gatwick—brilliant—but we need to be realistic,” said Edwin Brenninkmeyer, CEO of Oriens Aviation, Pilatus, and Tecnam sales and service for the British Isles.

What’s Really Happening Here

But we all know what happens when excessive regulation strangles business—the clever ones create workarounds. Nicolas Chabbert, senior vice president of the Aviation Division at Daher, has been involved in the process heavily for at least the last 15 years, and Daher has supported those operators seeking AOCs under the 2017 rule. Chabbert pointed out this “elephant in the room” during the technical discussion of the rule in practice: Operators may be using aircraft to provide shared “rides” outside of the AOC to avoid the onerous burden of the rule, or while waiting for mitigations to take place.

“The reality of the [reported] numbers that we are talking about, it’s a very small fraction of people that are using the TBM in commercial operations,” said Chabbert. “We see that we have a lot of other types of activity that are coming from—[flight sharing] apps, you know, fractional [operations]—we can have some type of usage, that is shared between people, and separation between the aircraft they are renting, and the rental.”

The complex regs have done nothing to advance safety—which should have been the point—in Chabbert’s view. “Today, there’s no safety objective that has been achieved. This is a lie in Europe. We have a roadmap, we have the safety analysis, we have the technology, we have the motivation from the operators. We just need to make sure that what we are going to apply makes sense and is not going to destroy what we think is an addition to the wealth of those in the nation, of the [transportation] choices that we have in Europe.

“I was involved for those 30 years, and in fact, for real for the last 15 years, [and hoped] that I would see, as we speak today, a large majority of operations under SET. This is not the case. What can we do to make it a real goal, and how long are we going to give ourselves so that instead of looking at the facts today where it’s a minority that is under SET, it becomes a majority? Do we need two years? Five years? Fifteen years? What we need is to basically set objectives so that we can have a very simple way to operate, and make sure that the market will then grow, and that operators can make money.”

The Takeaway

With the right correction—implemented in a timely fashion—there’s much to gain as the GA industry sits at a unique tipping point, able to provide an answer to sustainable, efficient transportation solutions while maintaining a high degree of safety. At the same time, there can be clarification between private and commercial operations instead of the shades of gray prevalent today.

The industry has demonstrated its ability to drive towards greater efficiency—with a 2 percent gain as targeted since 2009—and a commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The broader acceptance and distribution of sustainable aviation fuel to more and smaller GA airports underscores this promise, along with the early implementation of alternative energy sources. Add to this a commercially viable program, and it’s clear the potential this market segment has for growth in the future as well as today. GAMA plans to consolidate the outcomes from the meeting into recommendations to EASA, and it will publish the results.

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The Cessna Grand Caravan EX was delivered to Azul Conecta, a subsidiary of Azul Airlines, in São Paulo on January 13, becoming the 3,000th Cessna Caravan delivered.

“The Cessna Caravan’s versatility and reliability have made it the most popular aircraft in the utility turboprop category, with now 3,000 delivered globally,” said Lannie O’Bannion, senior vice president of sales and flight operations at Textron Aviation, in a statement. 

The rugged utility aircraft, which launched in 1981, was designed for flying in remote areas, such as mountainous terrain with extreme weather, making it a favorite for use as air ambulances and freight haulers and by various foreign militaries.

“This Grand Caravan EX will proudly fly the Brazilian skies and connect our 158 destinations, many of which are made possible by the aircraft’s utility and flexibility,” added Flavio Costa, chief technical officer of Azul and president of Azul Conectain, in the statement from Textron Aviation.

• Read More: We Fly: Cessna Grand Caravan EX

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The Crosscutting Operations Strategy and Technical Assessment (COSTA) project is spearheaded by the Federal Aviation Administration and also has support from NASA.

Xwing’s partnership with the FAA’s COSTA program is a logical step in bringing his company’s vision for autonomy to life, Marc Piette, Xwing’s founder and CEO, told FLYING. That’s because outside of structured flying operations in and out of airports, operators also use aircraft for things like aerial firefighting, he said. Operators also have to deal with scenarios, such as pop-up TFRs, which means deploying all-around autonomy like Xwing plans to do, which is much more challenging than it seems.

“The challenge of integrating unmanned aircraft in the airspace is so much more than the automation itself,” Piette said. “It’s to ensure that we integrate seamlessly with all the participants of that airspace and follow the rules and can handle the various situations that get thrown at that unmanned aircraft.”

Fighting Wildfires

According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), more than 5,000 wildfires occur in California each year.

To help combat this, Xwing says it is essential that U.S. agencies “determine how to leverage new technologies and services to best address and manage natural disasters.” While existing dynamic operations feature manually-operated airplanes, helicopters, and various-sized drones to drop water or fire suppression in a small area, there is room for improvement.

NASA is working with the FAA and other disaster response agencies to figure out how to integrate unmanned aerial systems and deploy an Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) to improve disaster response efficiency.

• READ MORE: NASA Awards Xwing Contract to Develop Autonomous Flight Safety Management System

The FAA’s UTM is a “traffic management ecosystem” for uncontrolled operations that is separate from but complementary to the FAA’s Air Traffic Management (ATM) system. 

According to the FAA, “UTM development will ultimately identify services, roles and responsibilities, information architecture, data exchange protocols, software functions, infrastructure, and performance requirements for enabling the management of low-altitude uncontrolled drone operations.”

Xwing will work with the FAA, the University of Alaska, and the Alaska Test Center for UAS Integration to evaluate information-centric approaches to improve traffic management in fire traffic areas (FTAs).

“This project will provide us with a more holistic view on how best to integrate large UAS in the existing National Airspace System,” Piette said. “Leveraging UAS, we have the potential to make everything from wildfire fighting to oceanic operations more efficient and safer. We believe the data that we collect from these operations will be essential to helping the FAA and NASA bring unmanned flights to more types of operations in the aviation industry.”

• READ MORE: Wildfires Leave Seattle Area Pilots Smoked Out

Checking the Boxes

The program, which is already underway, is set to run through April 2023. Xwing will run the flight operations for the project in Northern California, using Xwing’s autonomous flight technology on its Cessna Caravan aircraft. The flights will have a safety pilot on board.

Additional partners in the project include AirSpace Integration and ATA LLC, which will support flight data management, integrations with other FAA systems, and supporting operational flight trails.

Jesse Kallman, vice president of commercialization and strategy at Xwing, told FLYING that the data that Xwing collects will be used for various reasons. Those include analyzing the response times between air traffic control (ATC) and an autonomous aircraft, how UASs function when nearby other manned operations, and how remote operators use information-centric services to fly in challenging, high-stake operating environments.

• READ MORE: The Thrush 510G Switchback is a Potent Weapon Against Wildfires

“The process is pretty straightforward,” Kalman said. “We’re creating a series of trials, and we’re going to simulate different things. The FAA will control that local area, and we’ll figure out how you give commands to a very large unmanned system operating in and near other aircraft in that area.”

Kallman said the operation would also focus on figuring out how its autonomous technology manages things like pop-up TFRs, and unplanned route changes while interacting with existing air traffic in these sorts of environments.

Ultimately, this will give the FAA the data it needs to develop rules and procedures for its UTM framework. That could mean an evolution of the national airspace, communication procedures, or even right-of-way rules.

For Xwing, the project will help the company with its goals of integrating into the airspace.

“It’s a part of ensuring that we’re checking all the boxes as we are looking to certify this [autonomous flight] tech stack,” Piette said.

The post Xwing Joins FAA Study of Unmanned Systems Traffic Integration appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

As part of the deal, San-Francisco-based Xwing will share flight and ground operations data, algorithms, and pertinent autonomous subject matter expertise with NASA. In turn, NASA researchers will use the information to develop a safety management system (SMS) where regular pilotless flights can be integrated into the NAS. Additionally, NASA will study the risks associated with the fast-growing air mobility sectors that could soon feature electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOLS), autonomous and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones.

• READ MORE: How Did a Native American Reservation Become a Drone Delivery Trailblazer?

Marc Piette, Xwing’s founder and CEO, explained to FLYING that sharing his company’s data with NASA was essential in accelerating the adoption of autonomous flight in the industry.

Though this isn’t Xwing’s and NASA’s first joint effort, Piette said. “We’re excited to work with NASA—it’s a good thing for the economy and country in general,” he added. “We’ll be able to increase safety, access to goods, and rural transportation in general.”

Fast-Tracking Innovation

Why would Xwing share its data with NASA? The overall program is part of NASA’s System-Wide Safety (SWS) Project that the agency launched in 2018 to grasp the impact these advanced aviation systems had on safety. 

“Emerging aviation relies heavily on advanced automation to ensure safety, and Xwing is working to bring novel, safe aviation opportunities to the American public,” said Misty Davies, NASA’s SWS project manager.

While NASA is predominantly thought of as a space agency, there are branches that focus on terrestrial aeronautics and work directly with the FAA, Jesse Kallman, vice-president of Commercialization & Strategy at Xwing, told FLYING. Because of its vast resources and ability to facilitate collaboration even across competing companies, NASA might be able to serve as the catalyst that speeds up the pace and commercial deployment of new aviation technologies at a large scale, Kallman added. 

From its findings, NASA can develop and deploy tools, technologies, and best practices to limit the risks these new systems will create as they blend into the existing airspace ecosystem. For Xwing, the benefit is that they get to leverage NASA’s technical capabilities to get its autonomous product to market.  

“Both the data we provide to NASA and data we receive will enable us each to advance our capabilities and build a more robust safety case for the technology,” Kallman said.

Xwing’s Fast-Growing Operation

In February 2021, Xwing demonstrated a fully automated gate-to-gate operation of a Cessna Caravan turboprop retrofitted with their technology. In a video shared on social media that captured the flight, the experimental Cessna 208B Grand Caravan exited its hangar at Buchanan Field (CCA) in Concord, California. It then taxied, departed, landed, and taxied back to the hangar entirely on its own. 

Fast-forward, the company is a Part 135 air carrier without the autonomous technology on its aircraft. Recently Xwing expanded its fleet to operate more than 400 weekly human-piloted cargo flights for UPS. The airplanes are retrofitted with sensors and tracking software to collect data. That’s the data being shared with NASA.

• READ MORE: Xwing Says The Future of Air Transportation Is Autonomous, But How Close Is That Future?

How NASA Will Use The Data

The NASA contract will last three years. The data Xwing provides is expected to help NASA understand the real-world challenges that the industry is facing, NASA’s Davis said.

Is it the future of aviation? One Bay Area company is looking to take flights to new heights without pilots on board. @ScottMcGrew has an in-depth look Thursday morning on #TodayintheBay. Tune in or watch here: https://t.co/30BiMjdHg3 pic.twitter.com/pl2OKMXm4R

— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) August 10, 2022

“It’s really about the integration, and not so much the technology onboard the aircraft, but how they operate within a real-world operational setting with ground crew, ground control, and air traffic control in general,” Piette said. 

For instance, he said there are inefficiencies—like how repositioning flights are conducted. Showing a slide from the data they’ve collected from their cargo flights, the map shows that pilots rarely get to fly the most efficient routes. There are delays on the ground due to inefficient taxiing and the cargo loading process, which are all jobs that pilots and other airport personnel are required to do.

“All these things need to be handled gracefully once you move to a remote operator,” Piette said.

A significant feature of the contract is that NASA will use the data to identify risks and hazards related to runway detection, identification, and vision-based landing. Presently, only airports with ILS-Category 3 approaches have dependable autoland capabilities. Still, GPS-enabled standard RNAV approaches, which typically have a higher margin of error and, therefore, are less accurate than an ILS, are more predominant. So, if the data Xwing collects and shares with NASA helps them find a way to ensure similar levels of accuracy with GPS as with the ILS in any weather condition or terrain scenario, it would be a big unlock for their program.  

Timing is Crucial

Broadly, Xwing’s data, including emergency procedures, airspace communications, and infrastructure needs—such as on-the-ground support—will help NASA’s research to build new infrastructure standards, pilot/operator certification standards, and other best practices. The NASA Aeronautics Research Institute (NARI) might also work with Xwing to determine the supply chain challenges that make pilotless operations challenging.

The timing is crucial. Last month, a group of aviation business leaders testified before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Safety, Operations, and Innovation about the progress of introducing new technologies into the national airspace system. As the government looks to provide funding for the FAA to operate through its FAA Reauthorization Act in 2023, leaders from various sectors—pilots, government, policymakers, and manufacturers—continue to try to get on the same page about emerging technologies. 

The post NASA Awards Xwing Contract to Develop Autonomous Flight Safety Management System appeared first on FLYING Magazine.