Flight plans

Here’s a sure sign of the mainstreaming of a new technology: when two of the world’s largest and most influential tech companies announce in the same month their plans to make that technology an integral part of their business models.

Last month, both Amazon and Facebook made major announcements about their drone technology programs that could shape the future of commercial uncrewed aerial systems (UAS). While Amazon wants to bring order and control to the chaotic world of low-altitude drones in advance of its planned drone package delivery system, Facebook is testing high-altitude drones for delivering internet access to remote users.

At NASA’s annual UAS Traffic Management Convention in July, Amazon laid out a vision for an air traffic control system for drones that allows for a zone—between 200 and 400 feet—reserved for high-speed commercial drones such as those being developed by Amazon’s Prime Air program. The plan would restrict hobbyists flying radio-controlled drones to airspace below 200 feet, with the exception of special open flying fields “fenced off” from commercial air traffic. Altitudes between 400 and 500 feet would become a no-fly zone for drones. Anything above 500 feet is already against FAA regulations for hobbyist drones.

With the addition of more small UAS, the number of unmanned aircraft filling the sky at any given time is likely to be greater than the number of manned aircraft, requiring more sophisticated air traffic control technologies. In Amazon’s vision, a command and control network similar to the current FAA Air Traffic Control System would collect data on each drone’s position and share it with every other drone in the network. Drones would also communicate directly with each other, according to tech website The Verge, similar to what is emerging with autonomous automobiles.

“Everyone can have access to the airspace,” Gur Kimchi, head of Amazon’s Prime Air program, told The Verge. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a hobbyist or a corporation. If you’ve got the right equipment, you can fly.”

The FAA has given NASA the lead in developing this new air traffic control system, and NASA has been partnering with the private sector in this endeavor. Amazon is hoping to help establish a basic regulatory framework and a set of common technical standards acceptable to manufacturers.

“Everybody who flies in the same complex airspace need to speak the same language,” said Kimchi.

While Amazon concentrates on a low altitude drone “superhighway,” Facebook is planning on using super-high-altitude drones to deliver internet access to remote regions of the world.

“I’m excited to announce we’ve completed construction of our first full scale aircraft, Aquila, as part of our Internet.org effort,” Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook posted on July 30. “Aquila is a solar powered unmanned plane that beams down internet connectivity from the sky. It has the wingspan of a Boeing 737, but weighs less than a car and can stay in the air for months at a time.”

Facebook’s Connectivity Lab envisions a constellation of aircraft similar to Aquila flying at altitudes between 60,000 and 90,000 feet and using lasers to communicate with each other and radio signals to communicate with ground stations.

Zuckerberg’s goal is to provide high-quality internet access to the 10 percent of the planet without it: “To affordably connect everyone, we need to build completely new technologies.”