Drone Industry Says Methodology For Study May Be Suspect

A study co-sponsored by the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) and the U.K. government indicates that a 4 kilogram-class  (approx. 9 pounds) commercial drone could cause critical damage to an airliner windscreen at high but realistic impact speeds, but many in the drone industry say that the methodology for the study is suspect.

"BALPA believes the results of the tests are a robust verification of the Association’s warnings over several years that drone impacts on aircraft windscreens and helicopter rotors can be catastrophic, even at relatively modest speeds with small drones, and that the industry and regulator cannot rely on birdstrike data and certification for drones," the union said on its website.

The study reportedly used a drone constructed of components for a DJI F450, which was the precursor to the Phantom line. One commenter on the thread, Harvey Mulch, said that the aircraft would have been too heavy to leave the ground under the configuration used in the study, calling the results into question.

DJI also entered into the discussion. Company attorney Brendan Schuman said that if the union was "going to use our name in connection with this thread, kindly send us a copy of the full set of research results.

"Support of a specific drone policy such as registration is an entirely different matter from whether a research methodology is valid and informative."

The U.K. newspaper The Register reports that the research had been highly criticized by the drone industry. Only a brief summary was publicly released, and it does not contain detailed data supporting the conclusions of the report.

The testing was conducted by Quinetiq, a privatized government agency, and many in the drone community say that they produced results that matched what the sponsors wanted to see. The U.K. Department of Transport said that the full results could not be released for reasons of security.

(Image from Facebook)

FMI: Facebook Thread, Public study release