The invisible conflict unfolding above us: drones versus traditional aviation
Drones pose a real risk to piloted aircraft, and systems to control their use are far from ready, the head of a startup building software to regulate unmanned flights has warned.
The CEO of SkyyNetwork, Rory Houston, told Global South World that as drones “become more prevalent, they occupy more airspace. And as they occupy more airspace, that poses a risk to manned aviation, particularly lower flying helicopters”.
Houston and his SkyyNetwork team have over forty years of experience. He has built cutting-edge systems and helped introduce drones to industries ranging from medicine to agriculture.
There have already been several incidents in which drones have crashed into manned aircraft, but so far, no reported deaths as a result. Houston believes such incidents will become much more common if regulators and engineers fail to keep up.
Houston does point out that although drones will be increasingly commonplace, “it won’t be an overwhelming sky full of metal situation”. A study by Airbus in 2018 estimated that only 8333 delivery drones would be needed in the sky at one time for a typical urban airspace like Paris in order to make all the possible drone deliveries. However, other studies have placed the figure at eightfold this.
Even without the sky being blacked out by drones, he says, there is a significant risk to safety. As advanced drone technology becomes cheaper, “it’s very easy for untrained and unskilled individuals to get their hands on drones that can enter these highly safety-critical pieces of the airspace and pose a threat to the airspace”.
In March this year, an amateur pilot in the UK faced jail time after he flew his drone at 1600ft – four times the legal altitude – causing a police helicopter to take evasive action.
Houston says the industry must be working to reduce the risk of these sorts of incidents: “It's really up to the industry to design systems and solutions to stop people buying drones at their local hardware store and putting them in airspace they shouldn’t”.
Houston’s own company is making great headway on the front. With SkyyNetwork, Houston has built technology that improves the situational awareness of multiple drones in the same airspace, which will become increasingly vital. “We also source the hardware, we source the hardware, we do the flight operations in the safest and most efficient way possible.”, he says.
Houston also says standards bodies like the American Society for Testing and Materials will play an important role. Eventually, drone air traffic control systems will be globally standardised in the same way more traditional manned aircraft are, he asserts, “the work is absolutely underway, but there's a long way to go there”.
This story is written and edited by the Global South World team, you can contact us here.
