Tag Archive for: Speech

Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell
Ronald Reagan Building, Washington DC

Thank you for that kind introduction Nikhil. It is awesome to be here, soaking up the energy, creativity and innovation of a brand new form of transportation.

I find your vision for the future to be refreshing…invigorating even. And thats not easy to say, coming from where I come from.

We at the FAA have historically been a bit reticent to welcome new entrants in the National Airspace System, but that is changing rapidly.

It has to change, because this kind of energy, innovation and vision is what will fuel the future of aerospace, and frankly, get the next generation of kids interested in taking part.

They see innovation as a Tesla roadster circling the sun blasting David Bowie…or rocket boosters coming back and landing softly on the earth;

or drones delivering popsicles, or slipping the surly bonds of traffic in a flying taxi.

Hey… lets face it…you guys make aerospace cool again.

The energy you bring is also helping us at the FAA become more responsive to a rapidly evolving aerospace industry.

Gone are the days when we could ignore an entrant that was radically different. Nowadays, we either evolve or we get left behind.

We learned that the hard way when UAS technologies and an entirely new industry sprung up practically overnight and we werent ready for it.

Were sort of caught up now, but we are also determined not to let it happen again.

Thats why were out in front with urban air mobility, or UAM, working with the industry and with NASA to make sure we get it right.

Time is short companies are already testing a variety of vehicles both in the U.S. and abroad, some with passengers.

These two movements UAS and UAM really bring into focus how fast everything is changing now compared to earlier in my aviation career.

It doesnt seem possible that when I started flying as a C-141 pilot in the Air Force only 30-some years ago

yes…I realize that for a lot of the people in this crowd, 30-something years is like forever

But, when I started flying we had a dedicated navigator who would look through a small porthole in the top of the flight deck with a sextant.

Yes, a sextant. Its essentially the same equipment that Magellan used hundreds of years ago to look at the stars and get a position fix on the high seas.

Well, we got rid of the navigator and his medieval sextant in the 1980s when we ushered in the age of inertial navigation.

And soon after, computers and advanced systems design made flight engineers obsolete, leaving a pilot and copilot.

The pace of change picked up in the late 90s with the introduction of GPS, which greatly simplified navigation.

When GPS was combined with sensor and actuator miniaturization, more computer power and lithium-chemistry batteries, the unmanned aircraft revolution kicked into high gear.

And then some very bright minds saw too many people sitting in traffic and thought we can take all this technology and create a better way to move around cities-UAM.

Look what you collectively as an industry conceived and are currently working on.

These are some of the most exciting innovations and developments in aerospace since the Wright Brothers, and its all taken place over the course of a few short years.

Everyone is riveted by this. But then I put on my FAA regulator hat and now Ive got something new to keep me awake at night.

You see the ideal way of transporting people across cities. I see car-sized vehicles with multiple rotors hanging over dense urban areas.

Thats the challenge taking an industry of incredibly bright minds and fast-moving technology and joining that with a regulatory agency that wants innovation, but only if it can be safely brought into an urban environment.

Its why we have come up with the crawl, walk, run analogy.

As I said earlier, the FAA can no longer just say no to a new entrant. We are evolving and quite rapidly for us into a more responsive regulator.

And just like with technology, the pace of our evolution is accelerating.

Back in the 80s when I got into the business, it was not unusual for the FAA to take five or six years to write a rule do you have the patience for that?

It was fine to take 10-12 years to develop and certify a new aircraft type do you have the patience for that??

As you know, today, with the tech eruption that is coming to the aviation world, product cycles can be measured in months.

We dont have the luxury of so much time any more, but we have to ensure that safety is paramount. That cannot change.

So how do we do that?

We become a data-driven oversight organization that prioritizes safety above all else.

To do safety right, you have to start with a safety culture. A good safety culture produces the data you need to figure out whats really happening.

If we know about errors, we can fix the processes that led to those errors.

A safety culture demands that we infuse that safety data into all of our processes from top to bottomin a continuous loop.

When you think about how far aviation has come in a little more than a century, its hard to argue the point.

Weve gone from barnstorming to a safety record that is the envy of all modes of transportation.

We evolve in our rulemaking by transitioning from prescriptive to performance-based rules.

A few years ago, industry helped us modernize Part 23 airworthiness standards for how we certify small aircraft.

Performance-based rules will ultimately form the backbone for how UAM vehicles will be built.

For new entrants, we started with our legacy regulatory framework but have evolved to an operations first approach where we use existing rules where we can, and derive new rules where we need. As usual, safety is the primary concern.

Integrating UAS into the National Airspace System is a good example. Our process is simple: Get the data to assess our risks and then create useful regulations, policies and guidance where needed.

As a point of reference for how fast this industry is moving, the FAA has been registering manned aircraft for 92 years, and after only four years of registering drones, weve got four times as many on the books.

The UAS Integration Pilot Program, through a variety of demonstrations, is helping us capture data. Its also paying dividends on the investment side.

Recently, the FAA granted the first air carrier certification to Wing Aviation, a commercial drone operator.

Wing is doing beyond-visual line-of-sight package deliveries in rural Blacksburg, Virginia, using existing rules.

What happens next is that we gradually implement new rules to expand when and how those operators can conduct their business safely and securely.

Weve just closed the public comment period for proposed new rules that would allow small UAS to operate over people and at night.

On the horizon are rules for beyond visual-line-of-sight operations the Holy Grail of UAS rules.

To manage the traffic, were working with NASA and industry on a highly automated UAS Traffic Management, or UTM, system.

Even though were in the crawling phase of our crawl, walk, run path to full integration, were seeing positive impacts small drones are already changing the landscape of our economy and society.

And here are a few examples:

In San Diego, the Chula Vista police department and CAPE, a private UAS teleoperations company, are using drones as first responders to provide aerial views for officers to document accident or crime scenes, and search for missing persons.

Since October, they have launched drone first responders on more than 500 calls in which 67 arrests were made.

And for half of those calls, the drone was first on the scene with an average on-scene response time of 96 seconds.

Equally important is the 75 times that having the drone there first alleviated the need to send officers at all.

In Kansas, the State Department of Transportation showed us how to use drones for power line inspections and precision agriculture.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is using them to bait feral hog traps.

In North Carolina, they delivered blood samples to a lab for testing.

Drones delivered automated external defibrillators in Reno, Nevada, and inspected airport ramps and perimeter fencing in Memphis.

I have a strong hunch that the benefits we discover with Urban Air Mobility will be no less extraordinary.

NASA will again be our partner in this area with their UAM Grand Challenge planned for next year.

The Grand Challenge is about bringing the best and brightest minds from government and industry together to begin live testing of carefully designed scenarios to show how a variety of vehicles and airspace management systems will or wont work together.

And most importantly, to gather data.

Thats crawling. Were not ready to walk or run yet.

Walking and running will require that these highly automated or autonomous vehicles and systems meet the FAAs and the publics safety expectations for aviation when they buy a ticket…and as weve discussed, those expectations are very high.

We understand your desire to sprint out of the starting gate, but you have to understand our safety mandate.

Lets begin this integration by working with industry to start crawling, with low-risk operations in remote areas, gathering data and evaluating safety all the while.

When were ready, well systematically graduate to high-density urban areas with semi-autonomous operations the walking phase.

And, eventually, the system will mature to fully autonomous operations in busy urban airspace running.

And thats where given the level of safety that we have in the National Airspace System we cant fail.

Achieving this final state for a radically different new entrant will be an evolutionary process. It wont occur overnight, but it also wont take as long as it would have with yesterdays FAA.

Heres my challenge to you today: Shoot for the stars the commercial aviation safety record.

In the past 10 years, there have been more than 90 million commercial flights in our NAS, carrying more than 7 billion passengers, with one fatality.

Thats a safety record thats hard to get your mind around in any human endeavor, much less one where youre carrying humans in highly advanced aerospace vehicles at 500 mph, 7 miles above the earth.

You are working to become part of an elite club…commercial aviation. Work hard.

To be part of the safest mode of transportation on the planet, your operation must become synonymous with safety.

Thats the only way to fully exploit the energy, creativity and innovation of this exciting new industry.

Thank you all.

Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell
Baltimore, MD

Good morning. Theres a tendency, I think, to get caught up in the winds of technology. To the awe and the wonder and the incredible promise of what technology can do, of the potential it can bringto how we live, how we work, how we think about, literally, the way things are. We felt that way with the lap top, and we felt it again with the smart phone.

And now, looking at a symposium thats got more enthusiasm and excitement than theres room for, well, were having that kind of moment again.

If youre thinking, The age of unmanned aircraft has arrived. I think that, too. Given the year that was, its hard not to agree right down the line. Development has become production, and thats given way to application, and thats now well down the road to operations and integration.

The technology appears to have hit a sweet spot, the place where the right thing is happening the right way at the right time. The applications we hoped for are the operations we have. And those we have not are soon to be.

Now as we accelerate toward integrationseamless integrationlet us remember that to become a full-fledged part of the national airspace system is not the stuff of technology or development or application. It remains all about safety. Safety should remain fundamental to our collective mission.

To the question of whats next: The when, the if, the howtheyre all secondary to the foundation on which all of this stands. And make no mistake, that foundation is safety. If its not safe, its not going to fly. Thats true for absolutely everything thats in the national airspace system, and its absolutely true for drones. We demand that of the airlines. We demand that of commercial space. And we demand that from you.

I get it: This is an audience of innovators driven, fundamentally, by a Fail Fast mentality. After all…isnt that how progress is made? You fail, you learn, you improve.

We can failand we willbut we just cant fail with casualties or collateral damage. It has to be that way. To borrow an overused sports quote, safety isnt everything … its the only thing. But to really reach the full potential this industry has to offer, you must make safety your thing as well. Together, we will solve the most difficult technical and policy challenges. We have achieved an unparalleled record for safety, and the seamless integration of drones has tremendous potential to be part of that performance. But it can only happen if safety is our collective focus.

All things considered, the steady development and expansion of drones is proving to be transformational for aviation as a whole. The volume of UAS operations is fast outpacing manned aircraft. Drones outnumber traditional, registered manned aircraft by four to one. This is a fast-moving industry, and were doing our level best to keep up. Weve redoubled our outreach to drone operators and the public to educate current and prospective drone users about their safety responsibilities. We signed an agreement with AUVSI and AMA strengthening our partnership for the Know before You Fly educational campaign. That encourages UAS operators and the general public to understand the rules and responsibilities for flying an aircraft in the NAS. Lets face it, the national airspace system is the deep end of the pool. Its not for the faint-hearted or the careless. 900 million passengers were in it last year. Collectively, our education and outreach efforts are yielding results. The annual rate of increase of pilot reports about drones in places they shouldnt be is dropping by 50 percent each yearwhile the number of UAS operating in the airspace is increasing.

Raising awareness makes a difference. Im proud to announce National Drone Safety Awareness Week. I think its a creative way to connect the drone community with the general public.

The event will be held later this year. We want it to be an annual thinga weeklong series of drone-related events that will put the spotlight on drone safety. For communities, for stakeholdersin all 50 states. Its aimed at being a public-private partnership that will draw upon the collective resources of the drone community with guidance and support from the FAA and DOT.

Together, well develop an on-line playbook with suggestions to make this fly. We want everyone in on the conversation-manufacturers, operators, policy makers, public safety officials, state and local legislators, educators, the Test Sites, the Integration Pilot Program Lead Participants, the UAS Center of excellence, FAA regional resources and staff, model aircraft field operators, retailers, the research community. We have a lot of people to reach. Later this week, we will be discussing this topic with our Drone Advisory Committee. Were going to post additional details on how you can be a part of this conversation as quickly as possible.

Were thinking outside the box. We want to be more than the rule maker.

When it comes to policy making, we want to be the enabler for bright minds to come up with things that quite frankly we hadnt thought of. We recently moved forward with a number of enabling regulatory initiatives. On February 13, we published a proposed new rule on the operation of small UAS over people. Easily said, much harder to do. The trick is to mitigate safety risks without putting the cuffs on technological and operational advances.

We also put out an ANPRM asking for your thoughts on the best ways to identify drone safety and security issues. What risks do drones create in communities and around critical infrastructure and sensitive security sites, and whats the best way to reduce them? We want broad thinking here: the risks to aircraft, the risks to people on the ground, the risks to national security. 9/11 taught us a lot as an industry and as a nation. We want to use this advance notice to make sure we dont have to learn any of those lessons twice. Security and public safety questions are just about the most important questions we can be asking, and we need to be asking them at every turn.

Thats why we put out an interim final rule in February on external marking requirements for small UAS. Registration numbers are aviations license plate: everybodys got to have one. Youve got to display your unique identifier on an external surface. Thats how we do it in traditional aviation, and that registration number has served us well. As you know, we assign those identifiers upon completion of the registration process. And, yes, NCC-1701 is taken. Because of this rule, first responders can address the incident at handinstead of having to open the battery compartment.

This brings us to remote ID. Congress called for this in 2016. That laid the foundation for FAAs work with operators and our security partners. Everyone gets this. Maybe better put, everyone needs to get this. While we can think of registration markings as a drones physical license plate, we can view remote ID as the electronic counterpart. Weve got to establish the importance of remote identification, and weve got to reach a consensus on how to do it as quickly as feasible. Last year, Congress gave even more authority to the FAA to move ahead with work on universal registration and remote identification. I must emphasize here: this isnt a paperwork exercise. Weve got to work together. Safe operations and safe integration both demand that we get this right. If we dont, well have a patchwork system that you cant use and we cant manage. Without that, UAS integration is not going to progress much further.

Remote identification is the gateway to beyond visual line-of-sight operations and operations over people. Its the backbone for UAS Traffic Management. Remote ID is the enabler for package delivery, for operations in congested areas, for the continued safe operation of all aircraft in shared airspace. In the future, its what makes Urban Air Mobility possible. Its going to make automated cargo-carrying air transportation a reality. From a security perspective, universal remote identification will enable the FAA and our national security partners to identify friend from foe, thus enabling effective security response, investigation, education, and, when necessary, enforcement. This topic is so important, well be talking more about it with the Drone Advisory Committee later this week.

Security is an issue for all of us. As you all know, the unauthorized use of UAS poses a real problem around airports. At Gatwick, Heathrow, Dubaiand right here near Newarkweve seen how the presence of unauthorized UAS can disrupt air travel and cause safety concerns. Because there are existing laws on the use of counter UAS technologies, the FAA recently published guidance on our website for airport operators on the deployment of counter UAS solutions.

This checklist for airports to follow, helps further facilitate coordination with the FAA on the deployment of UAS detection systems. And we are also working with our federal security partners and airport stakeholders to develop a federal response plan for countering persistent UAS disruptions at major U.S. airportstaking lessons learned from our foreign partners, like the U.K. Theres no magic formula here: dont fly your drone without authorization near an airport. We arent shy about pursuing enforcement action. This coordination allows the FAA to identify and assess potential safety hazards as well as develop coordinated operational response protocols that will help prevent undesirable safety and efficiency impacts.

Just one bad incident, intentional or unintentional, can have a lasting negative impact on this emerging industry. We are focusing our educational efforts on the clueless and the careless and our enforcement activities on the criminal. This is a top priority, and as well it should be. Thats why FAA is committed to establishing remote identification requirements as quickly as possible.

In short, were committed to making this UAS integration a reality. Eighteen months ago, we launched the UAS Integration Pilot Program. Nine different communities across the country are pushing the envelope to identify ways to balance local and national interests. The IPP is a case study in communications, security, privacy and data collection.

This is about global leadership. Secretary Chao was right when she said that we must lead the way. The experience gained and the data collected from the IPP will help ensure the United States remains the global leader in safe UAS integration and fully realizes the economic and societal benefits of this technology.

Its already paying off. We recently granted the first air carrier certification to a commercial drone operator for package deliveries in rural Blacksburg, Virginia.

The Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability most people call LAANC is live at 500 airports and weve processed 100,000 LAANC authorizations. We worked with DOJ and FBI to quickly enable the safe use of Counter UAS systems to protect the Super Bowl. We held an urban air mobility roundtable. We held a series of webinars on how to fill out waiver applications to speed processing times. Were in the midst of a second webinar series on airspace requirements and restrictions. We partnered with Kitty Hawk to re-imagine and re-develop B4UFLY. New members were appointed to the Drone Advisory Committee. And we announced the exceptions for limited recreational operations of unmanned aircraft.

But thats not everything. In response to a Congressional requirement, later today, well release a Broad Agency Announcement on the FAAs contracting opportunities website. Were going to partner with qualified commercial entities that will match our $6 million dollar budget to perform UAS-integration related work at the Test Sites. Through these contracts, the FAA intends to bridge the gap between industry and the Test Sites. These partnerships will help us tackle some of the most pressing technical and operational challenges.

In short, were focused and were gaining ground. We want to integrate, not segregate. Were setting a global standard. And were showing that success quite clearly is not the exception to the rule. The future for drones is as unlimited as your creativity, drive, and technical brilliance. And I think the future for full integration is even more boundless. For our part, we seek to enable not to impede.

We believe safety, innovation, and progress can coexistin that order. Together, we can make this happen. Together, we are making history in real time. Im glad youre with us for the next few days. Thank you.