The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association President &\nCEO Mark Baker has been appointed to another two-year term on the FAA\u2019s Drone\nAdvisory Committee He is a founding member of the group that was established in\n2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Drone Advisory Committee comprises executives and\nleaders representing a broad cross-section of aviation stakeholders that help\nthe FAA \u201ccreate a broad strategy for the safe integration of\u201d unmanned aircraft\nsystems, the agency noted in a January 5 announcement of 12 new members.\nTransportation Secretary Elaine Chao appointed the new members to fill\nvacancies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am delighted and proud to serve another term on the\ncommittee, and to represent the interests of general aviation as we share the\nskies with an increasing number of unmanned aircraft,\u201d said Baker. \u201cAs our\nnation\u2019s airspaces get busier, it\u2019s imperative that we have smart and\ncoordinated integration that meets the needs of all aviators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AOPA is now the lone voice representing general aviation\nowners and pilots on the panel that helps the FAA strategize integration. The\nupdated DAC roster of members representing \u201ctraditional manned aviation\u201d\nincludes Baker and fellow AOPA member Houston Mills, who is vice president of\nflight operations and safety at UPS Inc. (and served as the captain of the\nrecent UPS flight tasked with delivering the first doses of a coronavirus\nvaccine). Two other members specifically represent manned aviation on the DAC:\nLorne Cass, president of Aero NowGen Solutions and a longtime airline\nexecutive, and American Airlines Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Molly\nWilkinson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Notable departures from the DAC include DJI, the undisputed\nleader in the consumer drone market worldwide, having produced 70 percent or\nmore of the 1.7 million drones registered with the FAA. Skydio CEO Adam Bry,\nco-founder of that California firm, will represent unmanned aircraft\nmanufacturers, along with executives of Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Wing, Amazon\nPrime Air, and Boeing Co.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HAI joined AOPA and Iris Automation in a December 22\nstatement applauding Congress for including in government funding legislation\npassed in December language that underscores the \u201cimportance of onboard Detect\nand Avoid technology (DAA) as a critical safety tool for full UAS integration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iris Automation has developed and deployed a computer vision\nsystem that automates the detection and identification of nearby objects. CEO\nJon Damush, a GA pilot and AOPA member since 1993, envisions a range of\napplications for the company\u2019s Casia system, including manned and unmanned\naircraft installation. Many view on-board DAA as critical to allowing unmanned\naircraft to fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) for missions including\npackage delivery and infrastructure inspection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two GA associations elaborated in their joint statement:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAOPA and HAI appreciate the prioritization of aviation\nsafety in this legislation and commend Congress for calling attention to\nimportant considerations for the FAA to address in order to advance safe BVLOS\noperations. Technologies such as onboard detect and avoid show great promise\nfor enhancing UAS safety in the national airspace system without the need for\nadditional equipment on manned aircraft. We look forward to the FAA\u2019s review of\nhow certain capabilities may be effectively utilized to meet a regulatory\nframework for UAS operations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association President & CEO Mark Baker has been appointed to another two-year term on the FAA\u2019s Drone Advisory Committee He is a founding member of the group that was established in 2016. The Drone Advisory Committee comprises executives and leaders representing a broad cross-section of aviation stakeholders that help the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mark-Baker-.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17389","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=17389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17391,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17389\/revisions\/17391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}