Tethered Aircraft Weighs More Than The Allowed 55 Pounds
A drone manufacturer is seeking an FAA waiver for operation of an unmanned aircraft weighing more than 55 pounds, the maximum allowed under part 107 rules.
The company is Aerones, and the aircraft are designed for use as water sprayers for such applications as firefighting and building cleaning. The company plans to offer services using the drones rather than selling them to others, according to a report from Inside Unmanned Systems.
The drones are designed to have as many as 28 motors and weigh as much as 400 pounds. In their letter to the FAA requesting the waiver, Aerones says authorizing the company to conduct commercial UAS operations utilizing their propriety UAS will result in safer, and more cost effective solutions than the traditional methods of work which require humans to be suspended precariously from a manned helicopter or rigging/repelling from an elevated anchor point.
Aerones Inc. will conduct the commercial UAS operation in a manner that will meet, and in many cases exceed, the current level of safety of similar methods. The Aerones UAS, while weighing more than 55 lbs., will be operated under controlled circumstance while being tethered to a stationary position which will limit collateral damage in the event of catastrophic failure.
The low expense of operation compared to cost prohibitive alternatives allow a greater economic benefit to businesses.
UAS technology used for these commercial purposes benefit the public interest in the following ways:
- Reduces the collateral damage risks to life and property associated with elevated human operations and low altitude helicopter operations in undesirable portions of the height-velocity envelope.
- Increased economic wellbeing to local businesses via cost reductions.
- Enabling aerial business solutions to be available to a larger market.
- Efficiencies gained by reducing the cost to maintain critical infrastructure will benefit all downstream users of infrastructure such as energy produced by wind turbines, a key application for Aerones UAS.
According to the waiver request, the Aerones UAS weighs approximately 200 lbs. and is capable of carrying an additional 60 lb. payload. The UAS has a maximum operational speed of 74 mph and can fly in sustained winds of up to 46 mph. The UAS is made from Aerospace aluminum tubes and center plates which is supported in flight by 28 propulsion modules.
The UA incorporates several fail-safes / redundant systems and a flight recorder. The autopilot consists of dual flight control systems with custom firmware, utilizing a switchover board which monitors all control signals and manages redundant signals. The electrical system consists of 28 independent batteries which are connected to an advanced battery management system. Operational safety is increased by equipping a tethering system which has a power cable. All components are housed inside a flame retardant, abrasion resistance cable sleeve.
The tether system has a total length of 557 ft. and a minimum breaking strength 6,320 lbs. The UAS incorporates 3 ballistic ejection parachute devices. The aircraft can be controlled via an ISM band frequency hopping radio link or via fiber optic tether for zero interference / zero latency control. Additional proprietary specifications are included in the attachments.
Comments on this petition must identify the petition docket number and must be received on or before May 7, 2019.
(Image from Aerones YouTube video)
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