In response to earlier inquires initiated from Mayor Bill
White's office, several representatives from the Federal Aviation
Administration traveled to Houston on August 2, 2007, to present a
proposal to Mayor White (and to representatives from the Houston
Police Department) for "A Test Project for the Houston Police
Department and the Federal Aviation Administration."
The FAA proposed two primary objectives for a test project
involving unmanned aircraft systems:
For FAA - "To gather data to determine if the identified
mitigations reduce risk to (an) acceptable level."
Note: By "mitigations," the FAA is referring to actions taken in
response to potential hazards. For example, as noted below in more
detail, various safety precautions were taken associated with the
UAS flight demonstration to assure the safety of persons and
property.
For HPD - "To determine the utility and affordability of the
unmanned aircraft system."
Having seen increasing
interest in the potential for UAS public safety applications from
various law enforcement agencies across the nation, the FAA
selected two locations for UAS test projects: Houston and
Miami.
On November 16, 2007, having received approval from the FAA in
the form of a COA (Certificate of Authorization), the Houston
Police Department hosted a flight demonstration of the Insitu, Inc.
unmanned aircraft system known as the 'Insight' UAS.
The flight demonstration (approximately 40 miles west of
downtown Houston, in a sparsely populated, rural area) was attended
by representatives from various law enforcement agencies, as well
as FAA representatives and a representative from the local air
traffic control. (Mayor White did not attend the November 16th UAS
flight demonstration).
For the November 16th demonstration, a number of safety
precautions were taken, including pre-notification of nearby
aircraft operations, overflight of the demo sight to search for any
potential aircraft not known to the FAA, placement of 'spotters'
(HPD helicopter pilots) around the perimeter of the demo site, use
of ground-based radar at the demo site, maintaining line-of-sight
operation, and tracking of the 'Insight' UAS by Houston Air Traffic
Control via a transponder.
The flight demonstration was a success (receiving praise from
the attending Federal Aviation Administration representatives),
affording local law enforcement officials the opportunity to view a
UAS in operation and to consider potential, future public safety
applications.
At this time, no additional Houston-area UAS flights associated
with the FAA/HPD UAS Test Project are planned prior to June of
2008. These flights will not take place until the completion of
multiple meetings with the FAA to consider all possible hazards and
mitigations. Furthermore, these test flights will, as with the
November 16th demonstration, take place in a rural, sparsely
populated area, yet to be identified location.
There has been no timeline established associated with practical
use of UAS for public safety missions.
The test project objectives remain the same, as noted above,
with "Safety" remaining the highest priority.