Functional Failure Analysis Regarding Airworthiness, Airspace Integration and Air Traffic Control for Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) Sustaining a Partial Loss of Information Transfer on the C3-Link

Abstract

In future, the companies of airfreight market will face numerous challenges. On the one hand, a worldwide significant growth of airfreight market is expected, but on the other, as a result of rising costs and increased competition, profit margins are declining [13]. Competition between freight airlines is becoming acuter. This development is inherent to the company’s quest for more streamlined structures and lower costs. The consideration of the direct operating costs for the operational performance of flights makes clear that both fuel and crew costs represent a significant share of the total costs and variable costs [14][15]. In addition, statistics consistently indicate that more than half of all airborne casualties are caused by the crew [16]. Through the use of unmanned aircraft, so-called Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS), the airfreight companies hope for a variety of advantages. The elimination of the crew on-board the aircraft simplifies staffing and route planning, and reduce the probability for human errors. Unmanned freight transport, monitoring emissions or, other applications in research and development are of particular interest. The usage of RPAS promises an improvement in effectiveness of performance and will provide a substantial cost advantage compared to manned aircraft. The rapid woldwide increase of RPAS development demandy a rapidly changing and adaption of aviation operational environments. The reliability of C3 Links of RPAS is a subject of much debate. How reliable does a C3 Link need to operate and what are the exact procedures to be followed in cases the C3 Link is interrupted? Previous RPAS-communication research concentrate on complete loss of C3 Link, which imply the communication between Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), Remote Pilot Station (RPS) and Air Traffic Control (ATC). Due to the diversity of data and information content, different frequencies and technical solutions are conceivable. Numerous causes, e.g. unfavorable weather conditions, electromagnetic interference, attenuating building and nature as well as a great distance between the transmitter and the receiver can lead to smaller available bandwidths, increased transmission time or incorrectly transmitted information. Depending on the flight phase, the loss of individual data can lead to no, minor or catastrophic complications. The combination of two or more missing data can also increase the potential damage. Therefore the safe integration of RPAS into the existing manned aviation system requires a detailed examination of partial link failure.