This report is a roadmap for ABSAA airworthiness and operational approval and to ease communication among stakeholders. It summarizes policies and procedures for airworthiness and operational approval and indicates how ABSAA can fit within their scope.
USAF Airborne Sense and Avoid (ABSAA) Airworthiness and Operational Approval Approach
Download Resources
PDF Accessibility
One or more of the PDF files on this page fall under E202.2 Legacy Exceptions and may not be completely accessible. You may request an accessible version of a PDF using the form on the Contact Us page.
This report sets out to investigate existing USAF airworthiness and operational approval processes and how they might be leveraged to field ABSAA on a USAF UAS for flight in the NAS. It also explores the concept of a safety case that may be needed for airworthiness and operational approval.
We find that the existing USAF airworthiness process is appropriate to provide airworthiness approval of ABSAA assuming the civil standards operational approval process is used, and that the artifacts developed as part of the TACC (or MACC) for a UAS with ABSAA can be sufficient to support both airworthiness and operational approval if properly tailored.