Explosive commercial drone crash in mobile home park
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating an explosive 100-pound drone crash in a mobile home park on December 18, 2019. The drone was a large $300,000 research drone belonging to the University of Iowa. The drone had an 18-foot wingspan and a 100cc motor. A 100cc motor is the size of a small motorcycle engine. Because of the size and weight of its cargo, the drone was powered by fuel, which caught fire upon impact. This was an uncontrolled crash that nearly landed on a home with occupants inside. Aside from the loss of a few Christmas decorations, no injuries were reported.
The University of Iowa commented that the drone that crashed was operated by the College of Engineering's Operator Performance Lab.school of engineering. Laboratory director Dr. Tom Schnell was controlling the drone at the airport when it malfunctioned, went off course and exited the airport's property, according to university officials.
Though Elizabeth Isham Cory, from the FAA's office of external communications, spoke of hobbyist drones when she addressed this accident, this is not a hobbyist drone. At the time of the accident, the FAA regulated Hobbyist drones as weighing 55 pounds or less. The vast majority of hobbyist drones weigh less than two pounds and are battery-powered. Battery-powered drone crashes seldom cause a fire.
The drone in question was a fixed-wing plane with an 18-foot wingspan weighing 100 pounds which was far outside the legal limits as to what is to be considered a hobbyist drone. Later that same month the FAA announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that laid out the future commercial drone flight in the United States airspace. In the document, the 55-pound weight limit for drones was proposed to be eliminated. That means drones weighing in the many hundreds of pounds ( or more) will be flying in the airspace. Explosive crashes like this potentially could be more common.
The commercial drone industry has been anxiously awaiting changes in aviation laws to allow their drones to enter the controlled airspace. Battery-powered flights, though environmentally friendly do not offer the flight distances needed by commercial drone operators. They instead need to resort to fuel to achieve their goals. These fuels can lead to a fire during a crash.
In this particular crash, the plane was powered by a rear pusher-propeller It had a dual boom tail and a very long main wing.
The design of this plane is similar to a much smaller hobbyist plane known as the Skyhunter which was designed for long-range flight.
Commentary
The issue is not that University should not have flown the drone or did anything wrong. The issue is that this is a sign of things to come. A clear differentiation needs to be made between hobbyist drones and commercial drones. Hobbyist drones do crash, and do cause damage. The vast majority of the time the crashes are so minor that they go unreported. Commercial drones are much larger, much heavier, capable of causing much greater damage. These drones will proliferate over time. Drone crashes will be more common and the FAA will be spending more of its resources investigating commercial drone crashes. Commercial drones have more in common with General Aviation aircraft than hobbyist drones. Currently, GA aircraft result in over 400 deaths a year as compared to zero deaths a year from hobbyist drones.
Source:
https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/2020/01/23/faa-investigating-university-iowa-drone-crash/4554292002/
The University of Iowa commented that the drone that crashed was operated by the College of Engineering's Operator Performance Lab.school of engineering. Laboratory director Dr. Tom Schnell was controlling the drone at the airport when it malfunctioned, went off course and exited the airport's property, according to university officials.
Though Elizabeth Isham Cory, from the FAA's office of external communications, spoke of hobbyist drones when she addressed this accident, this is not a hobbyist drone. At the time of the accident, the FAA regulated Hobbyist drones as weighing 55 pounds or less. The vast majority of hobbyist drones weigh less than two pounds and are battery-powered. Battery-powered drone crashes seldom cause a fire.
The drone in question was a fixed-wing plane with an 18-foot wingspan weighing 100 pounds which was far outside the legal limits as to what is to be considered a hobbyist drone. Later that same month the FAA announced a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) that laid out the future commercial drone flight in the United States airspace. In the document, the 55-pound weight limit for drones was proposed to be eliminated. That means drones weighing in the many hundreds of pounds ( or more) will be flying in the airspace. Explosive crashes like this potentially could be more common.
The commercial drone industry has been anxiously awaiting changes in aviation laws to allow their drones to enter the controlled airspace. Battery-powered flights, though environmentally friendly do not offer the flight distances needed by commercial drone operators. They instead need to resort to fuel to achieve their goals. These fuels can lead to a fire during a crash.
In this particular crash, the plane was powered by a rear pusher-propeller It had a dual boom tail and a very long main wing.
The design of this plane is similar to a much smaller hobbyist plane known as the Skyhunter which was designed for long-range flight.
Commentary
The issue is not that University should not have flown the drone or did anything wrong. The issue is that this is a sign of things to come. A clear differentiation needs to be made between hobbyist drones and commercial drones. Hobbyist drones do crash, and do cause damage. The vast majority of the time the crashes are so minor that they go unreported. Commercial drones are much larger, much heavier, capable of causing much greater damage. These drones will proliferate over time. Drone crashes will be more common and the FAA will be spending more of its resources investigating commercial drone crashes. Commercial drones have more in common with General Aviation aircraft than hobbyist drones. Currently, GA aircraft result in over 400 deaths a year as compared to zero deaths a year from hobbyist drones.
Source:
https://www.press-citizen.com/story/news/2020/01/23/faa-investigating-university-iowa-drone-crash/4554292002/
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