Remote Flight Inspection Using Unmanned Aircraft

Abstract

Aircraft instrument navigation is based on radio signal technology provided by ground navigation aids (navaids). The International Civil Aviation Organization specifies the required navaids availability, quality, accuracy, and integrity for ground installations on service, including the flight inspection operations. Flight inspection is the task of validating the radio signal emitted by navaids. This paper presents the architecture of a novel system for flight inspection based on the use of unmanned aircraft. The proposed architecture is operated remotely and has flight inspection capabilities by using radio signal sensors. It also has a precise positioning system, based on global navigation satellite system, and uses a data link with low bandwidth, long range, and redundancy. Except for congested airports, the flight inspection is done in segregated airspace. These segregated airspace inspection flights could be a catapult for seriously considering unmanned aircraft benefits in civil services. Unmanned aircraft are a ready technology waiting for legal approval to operate cooperatively with manned aircraft in regular airspace. The paper presents a simulation of the flight inspection of a navaid in Huesca, Spain. The simulation is a proof of concept of the proposed architecture.