Concerns Remain After Gyrocopter Incident In 2015

Nearly three years after retired postal worker Douglas Hughes landed a gyrocopter on the ground of the U.S. Capitol in 2015, remaining undetected in some of the most scrutinized airspace in the world, the U.S. Air Force is conducting a series of tests designed to hone its ability to detect small aircraft that might violate the National Capital Airspace.

The Washington Examiner reports that for the test, conducted earlier this month, the USAF is flying a gyrocopter in the region at altitudes between 500 and 2,500 feet AGL, as well as two fixed-wing airplanes ... a Cessna and a Sky Arrow ... up to 8,000 feet AGL.

In a news release prior to the beginning of the program, the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command's public affairs office said that the small aircraft would fly "a variety of flight patterns five to nine times per week" in an effort to "assist in calibration of systems and equipment, and will serve to refine and improve the ability to respond to unknown and potentially threatening aircraft."

Flights are being conducted at various times during the day, and NORAD said that they may be noticed by people in the area.

Hughes told the Washington Examiner his flight, which he says was intended to raise awareness of campaign finance reform and for which he was sentenced to four months in jail for flying without a license, "forced NORAD and the FAA to deliver the systems they had previously promised and not delivered."

(Image from file)

FMI: Original Report