The Evolution of Ideas - When a Safety Net Becomes a Straight Jacket
Innovation means letting go of bad regulation
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Every right idea eventually becomes the wrong one. Innovation means not only generating new ideas but escaping from obsolete ones.
This has never been more pertinent than when it comes to the Hokey Pokey that the FAA, NASA and associated bodies are all involved in regarding their speed on Urban Air Mobility - using ‘safety’ as the catch all word for staying inert. It must also be remembered that it took private enterprise to put a rocket ship under NASA to get it moving.
It’s something that is so clear, perhaps they cannot see the wood for the trees. We have millions of high powered engines on the road. These are travelling at speeds that will kill people. We have people interacting with these vehicles everyday across the globe. We have massive hunks of metal flying through the air with hundreds of people on them, taking off and landing on a minute by minute basis. These we are generally comfortable with, the risk factors, the convenience, the pollution, noise, fumes and so on. We are happy in the knowledge we can improve.
When it comes to sending a small light unmanned vehicle from a local distribution centre or medical facility directly to someones home or business through the air the, regulators are in a safety straight jacket. I am the first to praise the comprehensive studies by the FAA and NASA, many of which are excellent. These institutions have wonderful bright and intelligent people doing what they believe is their best work with the goals they have been set by management. The problem is a failure of imagination from the top, middle and bottom. How can so many, with such high levels of academic knowledge and understanding fail to grasp what is happening.
The FAA and as a result the US, are falling rapidly behind in this area. The EU is trying to do better, but unfortunately has systems and imbedded interests that are slowing it.
There are a few things that need to be agreed, not by regulators but by the people. If we remember who they are!
Can we accept Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in our transport eco-system?
Under what risk criteria can we accept them?
How can we bring the air space they need into the eco-system?
Can we accept Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in our transport eco-system?
The answer for some is yes and others is no. As we cannot have a small vocal minority dictating to the majority and in general people consider themselves free, they can decide in the jurisdiction where they own their air rights (above their property) if they want UAVs to transit. This seems equitable. If you have no air rights you can, in the normal course of events petition local representatives for decisions to be made regarding your local county and states property.
Under what risk criteria can we accept them?
We accept risk levels associated with motor vehicles. So without getting bogged down in endless reports why don’t we say we will accept Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with 75% less fatalities per capita than motor vehicles. This does mean however, that we need to start getting UAVs in the air.
How can we bring the air space UAVs need into the eco-system?
There are fragmented air rights, property rights, easements and rights of way, no-fly zones and open spaces among many other categories than need to be consider for urban air travel. We in SkyTrades are solving for this and enabling air rights owners set the criteria for their air rights and the market will help price it for them.
Decentralised or Centralised Traffic Management
The architecture for managing Urban Air Traffic for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) can take either a centralised or decentralised approach. A centralised approach involves a single entity responsible for managing and supplying common information services, while a decentralised approach relies on participants sharing data using common protocols with little central coordination. The decision on which approach to take depends on three factors: interoperability, safety concerns, and cost.
Interoperability can be achieved through a centralised entity or individual entities exchanging data and protocols. Safety concerns may lean traditionally towards a more centralised approach. However, the reality is that safety can benefit from a decentralised approach when the incentives are aligned. Costs may be incurred by either a centralised entity or individual participants in a decentralised approach.
As Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are developing at a faster pace than manned aviation, there is currently no universal system in place to manage them. Many jurisdictions are working to develop Urban Air Traffic Management concepts and policy frameworks that differ from current air traffic management policies. This new approach relies on automated, decentralised, community-based traffic management.
The decentralised nature of the management of urban air traffic feeds directly into the air rights ownership. The air space owned by air rights owners is the key to scalability. The technology for traffic management is available, and with our marketplace, air space is available. However, regulation is slowing down progress in many jurisdictions that gives the UAVs permission to fly. With air space available the FAA will have the confidence to approve the UAVs safety criteria.
Policymakers face economic choices and trade-offs when deciding on traffic management concepts. To speed up the regulators, attention must be focused on driving economic incentives. In the meantime, UAV operators and infrastructure providers need air space to transit through and to find friendly regulatory environments to grow at a pace that leaves incumbent regulatory environments to tilt at windmills.
Regulatory Hurdles
The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure held a Congressional hearing with its Subcommittee on Aviation, which focused on the use of drones. The hearing was attended by a number of panelists including Wing, the Chula Vista Police Department, WakeMed Health and Hospitals, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which is an official FAA drone test site.
During the hearing, Garret Graves from Louisiana, criticised the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for its inability to make quick and sound decisions regarding drones. Graves argued that the FAA's sluggishness in certifying drones is hindering the growth of the drone industry. This has resulted in a lack of clarity for new entrants in the market.
Graves also called out the FAA's misaligned regulatory process, applied to regulate small drones that are designed for delivery purposes but are treated from a regulatory stand point the same as passenger jets. He cited the need for regulatory standards that make sense for small drones with no people onboard.
The FAA's paperwork systems, such as the cumbersome and difficult-to-navigate application processing system webpage, have created a paperwork nightmare for drone operators. The industry is in need of clear and streamlined regulations that account for the unique characteristics of drones, in order to ensure a thriving and competitive market for drone technology in the future.
Regulators will generally only take action if there is a problem for the legislators voters. Voters in communities want drone delivery and to derive a benefit from that by offering out their air space or choosing not to. The technology is available to fly drones safely, track them and keep them away from no fly zones. The technology is available through us in SkyTrades to have the air space in the eco-system. Regulators need to catch up as the market will make this happen regardless of them. The US national highways system was started with private roads.
Air Taxi Developments
Four leading companies in the electric aviation industry have partnered with electric vehicle charging group Electro.Aero. The collaborations, which cover software, leasing, and infrastructure development, include a deal with Aerovy Mobility, a provider of electrical infrastructure software, which will allow for dynamic pricing of aircraft charging services based on machine learning of supply and demand patterns.
Another partnership with Altaport, a developer of automation software for airports, vertiports, heliports, and droneports, will ensure the orderly management of charging slots by pre-booking and queue control of incoming aircraft needing a charge. Electro.Aero has also partnered with Greenstar Aviation Partners for structured leasing solutions and with Skyportz for access to a portfolio of existing sites across Australia.
The company is already delivering chargers to several eVTOL aircraft developers and is expanding its product portfolio to meet operators' requirements for a full charge in just 15 minutes.
Moving Faster
The idea that we need to rely on organisations that have been proven to be good at one thing, safety, for a new dawn of urban transport is a terrible indictment of our our inertia. Safety is only one element, if they have no push back from any other side what they will continue to do is regulate in their own self interest not ours. This does not sound like an open society, it’s the opposite.
Pressure is starting to build on the powers that be, which is welcome. Certain people and politicians are trying to unlock this growth channel for their communities. The question must be asked, are there other jurisdictions that are free of these constraints and want growth in Urban Air Mobility.
Many smaller and growing countries when it came to phone networks, jumped the need for a captured, costly cable network and went straight for the more efficient cellular networks. This is a lesson in how moving fast with the information you have at the time, is generally a better strategy than waiting until the stars align.
Like the Wright Brothers and other brave pioneers across aviation’s history, today’s commercial drone industry has an opportunity to build futuristic and daring new platforms that could directly benefit millions of Americans. Embracing landowner airspace rights laws and building drone routing systems and business models around them - Troy A Rule
We in SkyTrades are building the air rights platform, to find out more please contact me jonathan@skytrades.io
Further Reading
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2110.13784.pdf