Waiver Watch | Ep 43: High Tech Waivers
Welcome to Waiver Watch!
Here is the agenda for this Episode 43:
Weekly Waiver Totals
Anduril Industries 107.35
Boeing Unmanned Flight Operations high altitude
1. | Weekly. Waiver. TOTALS
September 10-16, 2020
The FAA approved 15 waivers:
13 = Daylight Operations waivers (107.29)
1 = Simultaneous operation of multiple sUAS (107.35)
1 = Altitude (107.51(b))
2. | Anduril Industries 6-ship simultaneous operation
107W-2020-02463 - Sarah Yoo
Anduril Industries was granted a 107.35 waiver this week to operate up to 6 sUAS simultaneously at their Capistrano Test Site in California. Anduril Industries is a defense oriented autonomous technology company that has a number of sUAS products that support base defense, border security, counter drone, and critical infrastructure monitoring. They recently released the Ghost 4 sUAS, a tactical looking single rotor helicopter with a marketed 100+ minute endurance (impressive if true!).
Ghost 4 sUAS - Anduril Industries
Ghost 4 simultaneous operation
It’s a very unique design with a sort of a picatinny rail inspired main body that everything else subsequently attaches to. Direct drive rotors makes the propulsion extremely simple (and likely more robust) and the rail can be used to swap different components easily. This is likely the aircraft that is being operated in fleets, up to 6 at a time. Anduril actually has a neat image of this type of operation on their website.
The 107.35 waiver is very standard as far as they go - the operational area must be cleared, a VO must be used, and a failure of one drone must not cause others to fail. The FAA is looking to ensure that each aircraft is highly autonomous and de-conflicted from the other aircraft operating simultaneously.
3. | Boeing Unmanned Flight Operations high altitude
107W-2020-04155 - Paul Weatherman
Boeing Unmanned Flight Operations was granted a 107.51(b) waiver to operate sUAS up to 1,650’ AGL at Glasgow Industrial Airport near Glasgow, MT. Glasgow Industrial Airport is an abandoned Air Force Base that used to station B-52 bombers with an alert pad to deploy nuclear assets at a minutes notice. Being has been using the airport for some time now to conduct testing of a variety of aircraft including commercial jets like the 777 and now unmanned aircraft systems.
Flight Area
It’s not clear what aircraft is operating under this waiver. Boeing wholly owned subsidiary Insitu does have sUAS in the form of the ScanEagle, but we’re not aware of other sUAS that are directly under the supervision of Boeing.
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading this week! Leave us a comment if you have any questions or would like us to write about any specific waivers next time! If you have a waiver and would like to join us on the show to talk about it and other waivers, drop us a note! Until then…
