Drone On

Already one of the fastest growing segments in the aerospace industry, unmanned aircraft are poised to reach greater heights in the coming years as the Federal Aviation Administration expands the use of the planes in U.S. airspace. Commercial use of unmanned aircraft, known as drones, is the great untapped market for manufacturers and suppliers, many of which are based in the San Fernando and Santa Clarita valleys and parts of Ventura County. Area companies such as AeroVironment Inc., FO Engineering and others say they anticipate investing in personnel and equipment to meet the demand for these aircraft, which can vary considerably in size and scope. Current law allows for law enforcement and universities to receive special permission from the FAA to operate a drone in U.S. airspace. The passage of the FAA Reauthorization bill in February allows for widespread use of the aircraft and eliminates the FAA waiver. This month, the FAA will establish rules for use of drones weighing 4 pounds or less by police departments and emergency responders. The agency has a Sept. 30, 2015, deadline to fully integrate drones of all sizes into the national airspace and establish six test sites for the aircraft. The change in the law has drawn criticism from groups that are concerned that these aircraft can invade personal privacy, or pose a threat to public safety if the aircraft loses communication with its remote operator and crashes in a populated area. According to FAA documents received by the Electronic Frontier Foundation through a Freedom of Information Act request, there were 38 active waivers by the U.S. military, law enforcement and other public entities as of mid-April. Another 18 issued had expired and two requests for waivers were turned down. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a San Francisco-based public advocacy group for free speech, privacy and consumer rights. The FAA forecasts that by 2020 there could be as many as 30,000 aircraft in the sky without a pilot in the cockpit. “If that is the case you have to have a lot more latitude for the industry to work in,” said Tom Nielsen, a consultant in the aerospace industry who serves as the vice president of the Channel Islands Chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. Law enforcement agencies are not the only potential groups to benefit from these regulatory changes. Unmanned aircraft can be used for traffic reports, inspecting agricultural land and other real estate, tracking wildlife, observing soil erosion, monitoring pipelines and transmission lines, and battling forest fires. “On the civilian side the applications are endless,” said Jeff Roberts, the head of sales and marketing at FO Engineering, a Santa Clarita firm that designs electronic systems for the aerospace industry. With unmanned aircraft accounting for about 10 percent of its business, FO has put that segment front and center in its growth strategy. So, too, has National Technical Systems Inc., the Calabasas-based testing services firm, and GT Aeronautics, a Simi Valley drones manufacturer. National Technical Systems has done testing on the A160 Hummingbird pilotless helicopter made by Boeing Co., said Mike Mindt, the company’s market director for aerospace. The company also has designed pods attached to the Predator and Reaper unmanned aircraft which contain equipment to detect nuclear debris in Japan. And officials from National Technical Systems met with officials from Mexico to provide training on how drones can be used for border patrol activities. “I am putting together a five-year plan on expanding that market,” Mindt said. “This is an area of emphasis and a critical area for growth.” AeroVironment AeroVironment Inc., a Monrovia-based company with manufacturing and testing facilities in Simi Valley, is a national leader in developing unmanned aircraft. The company built the Wasp and Raven aircraft used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan for reconnaissance and surveillance. Its quad-rotor Qube craft is targeted specifically for emergency responders. AeroVironment said it expects orders for unmanned aircraft to increase in the coming years, though company officials declined to provide metrics or financial data on current or projected orders. “We believe we can manage our operations to accommodate that demand in growth,” said Steve Gitlin, vice president for marketing strategy. AeroVironment has been designing and building unmanned aircraft for almost a decade, starting in 2003 with Dragon Eye. The nation’s unconventional wars since that time speeded up the company’s development of more sophisticated air vehicles. Until 2007, the company had been visiting police departments and other law enforcement agencies to demonstrate its small UAVs. The visits stopped when the FAA became more restrictive on issuing drone operation waivers. Since then, AeroVironment has become focused on helping to shape federal policy and has advised the FAA on what rules and regulations should be put in place, Gitlin said. “As that process continued we saw the light at the end of the tunnel and began to think what the market would require from us,” Gitlin said. “That led to the Qube.” In today’s market, unmanned aircraft vary from AeroVironment’s lightweight, hand-launched Wasp and Puma, which cost thousands of dollars to purchase, to large aircraft such as Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk and the Predator by General Atomics, which cost millions. Regardless of size, the aircraft can carry cameras, listening devices and, in some cases, weapons. GT Aeronautics currently serves the military market with its mid-size Bandit and Tacamo aircraft, but company President Tom Rullman says its future is in non-military applications. Rullman, a pilot, founded GT Aeronautics in 2003. He declined to provide sales figures, but said the company turned a profit in 2011. Rullman said he anticipates that when the FAA settles on its rules for building, operating and maintaining drones the regulations will mirror those that exist for manned aircraft. “I am proponent of regulating these things,” he said. “They can cause damage if in the wrong hands.” As the FAA works on the regulations for the small drones, the agency will likely limit the aircraft to an altitude of 400 feet, restrict operations to daytime hours and require that the operator on the ground keep the aircraft — and other aircraft — in visual sight, said Ben Gielow, government relations manager and general counsel for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. “There will be resistance even with all that,” Gielow said. “The potential is large for these systems even on the small ones. We are optimistic the FAA will move forward.”