Perspective in Flight: After BVLOS ARC and XPONENTIAL 2022

25 May 2022 Perspective in Flight: After BVLOS ARC and XPONENTIAL 2022

Today I wanted to bring some of the aviation events of last month into perspective. Here are three successful short term events:

1. Aviation’s Season Opener: Sun ‘n’ Fun 2022 in Lakeland
2. The publication of a 381 page report, UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEMS BEYOND VISUAL LINE OF SIGHT AVIATION RULEMAKING COMMITTEE (BVLOS ARC). This Final Report, contains a lot of content and recommendations, along with a fair bit of confusion and complexity.
3. Not too many weeks later, many from the industry joined together at XPONENTIAL 2022 for many sessions, including one on BVLOS that covered the following top level points:

• Standards are a powerful mechanism to enable autonomy to safely roll out to industry.
• We are better served with a flexible, modular framework that is function-focused as opposed to use-case-focused.
• There are many functions that need standardized. Some may be unexpected.
• Establishing performance classifications and ranges allows mapping specific requirements to specific operations (or segments within operations) through a risk overlay/filter.

This is all good and well, you say, sounds good to me, now let’s get on with it. Sure, we all like the punctuation on a good sentence, or putting a bow on a great show or a delivered report.

But what you don’t see is the steady progress made along the spine of clear vision for the future of aviation: perspective in flight.

The events above are a few steps (which happen to be very public and very visible) taken along a marathon toward safe, integrated flight for all. ALL means autonomous flight, alongside manned flight for fun, and private and commercial flight for transport. It means everyday recreational flight and first responders in action. It means smarter flight, with a better safety record.

Like the highlights reel from a great sporting event, there is and has been so much going in behind the scenes that most don’t see. What you don’t see along the marathon are:

• decades of work setting up standards-driven flight and the promise of more new pilots before the Light Sport Aircraft NPRM
• a huge meeting of people at Oshkosh for an organizational meeting for legitimatizing Part 103 and “fat” ultralights
• Daniel Schultz, whose wife had triplets while managing the “poster child” of ASTM committees, F37
• Daniel’s subsequent passing from this earth
• the subsequent dropping out of most of the people in that huge OSH meeting, leaving a few to eke out the hard work of writing standards while running our businesses too
• a steady rhythm of ASTM meetings, as this new set of standards was brought to bear in real life flight
• consistent bloggers and podcasters, with boots on the ground, making flight accessible to everyman
• the breakout of hobbyist drone activities and Part 107 regulation and re-invigoration of young people interested in flight
• muted excitement as we saw that the safety record for the LSA spearhead was excellent, and the standards were working
• initiation of ASTM Committees F38, F39, F44, and F46
• a sifting of LSA manufacturers after the initial “Wild West”
• the quiet work within the US DOD, moving things along in partnership with the private sector, funding technologies and research
• presentations from the FAA about the future of flight over the next 20 years including standards-based methods of approval
• fifteen people meeting weekly for 2 years to talk (and argue) about overcoming regulatory barriers to autonomy
• minds being opened to a scalable way to move aviation innovation without the classical operational or configuration boxes
• more work on consensus standards for PNT (Position, Navigation, and Timing) and BVLOS
• and on, and on
• and on

You may have just joined light aviation during this current flurry

of unmanned startups and billion dollar promises, all chomping at the bit like prodded bulls in a Madrid arena. Or you may be one of the few remaining WWII pilots, wondering if the glory days of manned flight are well behind us. Whoever you are, reader, you should know that at Streamline Designs we’re not getting caught up in all of the waves of trends. We’ve been here for the first half of the ultra-marathon, and we’re not getting flustered when things threaten to go off the rails. We have a clear vision for flight for all and we’ll keep making our way toward that vision, one day at a time.

No, somebody has to keep seeing what flight could be and should be and will be, if we keep our heads down (and ask and ask and ask the FAA to continue to do what they were chartered to do) and try to orbit the big dog and pony show. Nevertheless, we are here, enabling flight like we always have been, and we will continue to do this, Lord willing. We will continue to work alongside you on the projects and ways that we see as enduring. And we will keep sowing our best efforts into these matters while keeping perspective. And when MOSAIC comes in 2023, we won’t stop, because there will still be much work to do. We will keep pressing on to explain, enjoy, and enable better, more capable, more creative flight, because that is what we do. We enable flight.

What questions do you have? See if they are answered here. Or contact us, any time.