Integrating unmanned aerial system operations into the Dallas/Fort Worth airport environment

Paul Sichko

Journal of Airport Management, 2019, vol. 13, issue 3, 206-214

Abstract: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) was one of the first airports in the USA to receive Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval to fly small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) aircraft in highly restricted Class B airspace. To date, almost 100 public and commercial flights have been flown at DFW in support of law enforcement activities, fire safety, airport construction and private industry videography. The path to FAA issuance of sUAS certificates of authorization (COA) was paved by a concerted effort among a broad cross-section of aviation professionals with an interest in integrating UAS operations into the DFW environment. The DFW UAS Work Group worked diligently on many aspects of sUAS operations, ranging from COA application to UAS education to flight procedures development. Collaboration between airport representatives and various entities within the FAA resulted in an executed letter of agreement that supports public and commercial sUAS flights over airport property. This paper describes the methodology applied by the work group that led to successful sUAS flight operations. The paper also identifies barriers encountered and the processes applied to mitigate those issues. The author and the DFW UAS Work Group would like to share information that would hopefully assist other airports in developing a sUAS flight programme.

Keywords: airspace jurisdiction; authorised sUAS flights; collaborative effort; letter of agreement; LAANC; drone detection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M1 M10 R4 R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://hstalks.com/article/1760/download/ (application/pdf)
https://hstalks.com/article/1760/ (text/html)
Requires a paid subscription for full access.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aza:jam000:y:2019:v:13:i:3:p:206-214

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Airport Management from Henry Stewart Publications
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Henry Stewart Talks ().