Male RPAS Integration into European Airspace : Part 1: Real-Time Simulation Analysis of Contingencies in TMAs

In Europe, Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) are only permitted to fly in segregated airspace. Because such restrictions limit civilian applications of MALE RPAS, several SESAR and EDA projects are currently working on the procedures needed to allow routine MALE RPAS flights in unsegregated European airspace. To complement these efforts, the Royal Netherlands Aerospace Center (NLR) has partnered with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) and General Atomics United Kingdom (GA-UK) to gather the data needed to develop MALE RPAS airspace integration procedures through a series of Real-Time Simulation (RTS) experiments. This paper summarizes the results of the first RTS campaign performed under this collaboration, which investigated the procedures needed to deal with MALE RPAS contingencies, such as Command and Control (C2) lost link and engine failures within the Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA) of a civilian airport. The RTS was performed with experienced Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs), airline pilots and RPAS pilots. The results indicated that the procedures developed for manned aviation can also be applied to most MALE RPAS contingencies, except for RPAS specific contingencies, namely C2 Lost Link and Automatic Take-Off and Landing System (ATLS) failures. For these situations, new procedures have been proposed as a set of guidelines for ATCOs and RPAS pilots. The results also indicated that activating trajectories to pre-planned loiter waypoints could increase the predictability of many MALE RPAS contingencies, while also taking advantage of their increased endurance for troubleshooting.