Tailoring an Airworthiness Document to Unmanned Aircraft Systems: A Case Study of MIL-HDBK-516C

With the popularity of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), there is a growing need to assess airworthiness for safe operations in shared airspace. In the context of this thesis, shared airspace implies the introduction of UAS into airspace designated for manned aircraft. Airworthiness guidelines are generally statements that state safety requirements to prevent unwanted consequences, such as aircraft accidents. Many governmental agencies such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) analyzed the risks of UAS to third-parties, all personnel and properties exterior to the aircraft. This thesis concerns the adaptation of existing airworthiness documents written for manned aircraft to UAS. The proposed method has three stages that are applied in sequence to identify relevant and irrelevant airworthiness statements, the building blocks of an airworthiness document, with regard to UAS. This method is applied to MIL-HDBK-516C, used as a case study; however, the proposed methodology can be applied to any airworthiness document developed for manned aircraft. This thesis presents a list of all MIL-HDBK-516C airworthiness statements that are directly relevant, indirectly relevant, and irrelevant to UAS; additionally, the indirectly relevant airworthiness statements to UAS are provided along with suggested modification.

Name thesis:degree_name

M. S.

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Kevin T. Crofton Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Halefom, Mekonen H.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Woolsey, Craig A.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Salado Diez, Alejandro
• Canfield, Robert A.

• Airworthiness
• MIL-HDBK-516C
• Third-party
• Unmanned Aircraft System
• Aviation Safety
• Equivalent Level of Safety
• UAS Airworthiness Document

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/98018

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/98018