{"id":16543,"date":"2020-09-29T18:28:54","date_gmt":"2020-09-29T18:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=16543"},"modified":"2020-09-29T18:31:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-29T18:31:21","slug":"fedex-testing-live-use-of-drones-for-aircraft-inspection-at-memphis-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/front-page-slider\/fedex-testing-live-use-of-drones-for-aircraft-inspection-at-memphis-international\/%20","title":{"rendered":"FedEx Testing Live Use of Drones for Aircraft Inspection at Memphis International"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Since September 2018, FedEx has been testing the live use of\ndrones for aircraft inspection within an airport setting at the Memphis\nInternational Airport, a first for airport drone operations in the U.S. The\nFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently prohibits drone use within five\nmiles of any airport, but learnings from this pilot program, in partnership\nwith drone companies such as DJI and Asylon, will be used to inform future FAA\npolicies around drone use at airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/MEM-UAS-IPP-3-smledit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16544\" width=\"272\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/MEM-UAS-IPP-3-smledit.jpg 800w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/MEM-UAS-IPP-3-smledit-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 272px) 100vw, 272px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>After spending the first year developing flight procedures\nwith the required risk management using FedEx\u2019s Safety Risk Management (SMS)\nprocess, FedEx began initial operations off-airport in areas of increasing\noperational complexity, including places such as the Memphis Riverfront Park,\nMemphis Redbird Ball Park and Liberty Bowl Coliseum. FedEx conducted small\nunmanned aircraft systems (UAS) pilot and visual observer training during day\nand night-time operations, developed and evaluated small UAS flight performance\non simulated missions, before progressing to the Memphis International Airport\nto conduct UAS flight tests with three designated areas of increasing\noperational complexity including isolated on-airport areas (phase 1); active\nramp areas isolated from arriving\/departing aircraft (phase 2); and lastly,\nwithin an active ramp area including in the presence of arriving\/departing\naircraft (phase 3). Since then, the pilot program in Memphis has expanded to\ninclude general visual inspection, security\/perimeter surveillance, Foreign\nObject Debris (FOD) detection and aircraft parts delivery across a fleet of\nseven drones total.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Given these small UAS were not developed and manufactured\naccording to strict FAA airworthiness standards, FedEx has conducted a\nsignificant amount of flight crew training, operational and maintenance data\ncollection, and environmental conditions (i.e., temperature, wind,\nprecipitation, etc.) for safe conduction of drone operations within an airport.\nThis data collection allowed FedEx to identify operational and performance\nlimitations of the various small UAS, which have been accounted for in its operational\nprocedures. As a result, FedEx successfully demonstrated the safe and effective\nuse of drones on airport flight operations, enabling them to expand operations\nto other FedEx facilities such as Indianapolis, Alliance Ft. Worth, Oakland,\nAnchorage, and Greensboro in the near future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since September 2018, FedEx has been testing the live use of drones for aircraft inspection within an airport setting at the Memphis International Airport, a first for airport drone operations in the U.S. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) currently prohibits drone use within five miles of any airport, but learnings from this pilot program, in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-front-page-slider","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Approved-MEM-UAS-IPP-Photoedit-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16546,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16543\/revisions\/16546"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}