Aviation Commons^™

Color-Coding: An Aid Or Hindrance In A Multi-Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Supervisory Control Task, Austin Daniel Wood

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effect of coding types (i.e., alphanumeric coding, color-coding, and redundant color + alphanumeric coding) for vehicle identification and status information on pilots’ recognition performance, situational awareness (SA), and workload for a multi-vehicle operations ground control station (GCS) supervisory control task. With the aviation industry's push towards operators supervising and controlling multiple vehicles, it is pertinent to identify design features that support the capabilities and limitations of human operators. The current study employed a within-subjects, repeated-measures experimental design, in which a sample of 33 students with aviation experience performed three trials, …

The Danger Zone: Uas Sightings By Distance From Airports, Jalee Noel Boucher, Omkar Aaditya Sahoo, Brian Winston Anthony Williams, Vivek Sharma, Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

The increased usage of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) has called for an increase in pilot awareness as they approach or depart airports. Given the increase in UAS usage and the growing academic and industry relevance of UAS, encounters between manned aircraft and UAS are to be expected. The purpose of this study is to examine differences in the number of monthly reported UAS sightings across distance categories from the airport in the contiguous United States between January 2021 and December 2025 (FAA, 2025). An ex post facto design was used and distance categories were established. Data that lacked distance information …

Drone In Sight: Studying The Rates Of Uas Sightings Near Airports By Month, November 2019 To December 2024, Ethan Akers, James Hart Arnold, Travis Coleman, Vivek Sharma, Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

A weak, decreasing trend was found in monthly UAS (also

known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or Drone) sightings near

airports (FAA, 2025), but it was not statistically significant.

There was a significant difference in UAS sightings by month of

the year between November 2019 and December 2024, with a

more sightings in summer months.

Using Thermal Camera Drones In Beef Cattle Roundup, Justin Wyatt Clawson, Eric Galloway, Shalyn Drake, Shawn Barstow, Ross Israelsen, Michael Pate

All Current Publications

Using drones with thermal sensors can be an effective tool in finding and collecting livestock from summer mountain ranges in the West. Drones can complete searches in much less time than required on horseback in demonstrated areas. Using drones reduces the workload of the rider and horse, saving time and energy and reducing the risk of injury. With proper training and certification, livestock producers can use drones to locate cattle and perform many other cost-cutting operations.

Introduction To Drones, Shawn Barstow, Justin Wyatt Clawson, Shalyn Drake, Eric Galloway, Michael Pate

All Current Publications

Unmanned aircraft have advanced so much that they are completing tasks and integrating into all aspects of our lives. They deliver, survey, collect data, and complete assigned tasks with more efficiency and lower cost than many currently used techniques. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) completely supports UAS in the National Airspace System (NAS) and continually updates information in this new and exciting field. This fact sheet will help you identify how you can legally fly drones and become an integral part of aviation’s vast and ever-progressing world.

The State Of Uas Operations At Airports, A Perspective From Airport Managers, Damon Lercel, Sarah M. Hubbard

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

As the number of Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) operating in our National Airspace System (NAS) increases, so do UAS operations near or at an airport. The accelerating technology in Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and related business opportunities will only further increase UAS operations at airports. This continued growth in new UAS technologies and applications introduces new hazards and risks to the airport environment. This proliferation of UAS highlights the importance of airports developing a robust Safety Management System (SMS) that includes specific UAS risk mitigations. There is currently little empirical data regarding UAS traffic around airports and there is no …

Air Supremacy, The Enabler Of Close Air Support Operations – An Evaluation Of Past, Present, And Future Air Campaigns., Owen Topolnicki

Senior Honors Theses

The achievement of gaining aerial supremacy, or lack thereof, is the hinge upon which Close Air Support (CAS) swings. The attainment of it enables CAS specialist aircraft, not unlike the Ju-87 Stuka or A-10 Thunderbolt II, to be exceptionally effective in their operating environment. While the lack of it, forces aircrews to pioneer new solutions either in the form of multi-role aircraft (capable of self-defense), or other innovative solutions similar to unmanned aerial systems (UAS’s), as aptly seen in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Thus, the ability of an air force to gain air supremacy and to do so quickly, …

Determining The Difference In Monthly Hazardous Uas Sightings Pre- And Post-Trust​, Jacob Daniel Anderson, Kyle Beane, Ethan Ryan Prins, Brooke Wheeler

Aeronautics Student Publications

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) present a significant challenge to regulators. This study determined that there was no statistically significant difference in monthly UAS sightings before and after the implementation of TRUST.

Incorporating Safety Excellence Into Urban Air Mobility (Uam): Insights From Commercial Aviation, Rotorcraft, And Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas), Seyoung "Evie" Jang

Senior Honors Theses

This paper focused on safety considerations in Urban Air Mobility (UAM) through a cross-industry examination of commercial aviation, rotorcraft, and unmanned aerial systems (UAS). Although UAM promises transformative benefits, there are safety concerns remaining. Based on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)’s Concept of Operations (ConOps), the literature review explained the fundamental concepts of UAM. In commercial aviation, regulatory framework, pilot training and certification, vehicle design and maintenance, and emergency response planning are emphasized. For rotorcraft, safety requirements for vertical flight, collision avoidance systems, heliport standards, and weather adaptability are crucial. Leveraging UAS advancements, the study suggested autonomous systems, sense-and-avoid technology, …

A Comparison Of Airport Risks: Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) Sightings, Wildlife Strikes, And Runway Incursions, Cheng Wang, Sarah M. Hubbard

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

To provide a context for the potential threat of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) sightings on airport operations, this paper compares the characteristics of UAS sightings with two common airport threats: wildlife strikes and runway incursions. This study analyzed over 60,000 events in a three-year period (September 2016 to August 2019), including 6,551 UAS sightings from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) UAS Sightings Report database, 47,574 wildlife strikes from the FAA Wildlife Strike database, and 6,041 runway incursions from the FAA Runway Safety database. The results suggest both similarities and differences among the airport threats. Both UAS sightings and wildlife strikes …

Utilizing Drones To Streamline Wildlife Hazard Management Efforts By Airport Operators, Flavio A. C. Mendonca Ph.D., Ryan Wallace, Jose Cabrera, Cole Mcnall

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

Airports operating under the Code of Federal Regulations Part 139 should conduct a wildlife hazard assessment (WHA) when some wildlife-strike events have occurred at or near the airport. The WHA must be conducted by a Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologist (QAWB). The required elements in a WHA include the identification of the wildlife species observed and their numbers, and the location of features on and near the airport that could attract wildlife. Service learning and research projects enable undergraduate students to develop transferable skills that are highly valued by the aviation industry, including critical thinking, self-confidence, the ability to integrate theory …

Accuracy Assessment Of The Ebee Using Rtk And Ppk Corrections Methods As A Function Of Distance To A Gnss Base Station, Joseph Cerreta, David Thirtyacre, Peter Miller, Scott S. Burgess, William J. Austin

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

The use of unmanned aircraft systems to collect data for photogrammetry models has grown significantly in recent years. The accuracy of a photogrammetric model can depend on image georeferencing. The distance from a reference base station can affect the accuracy of the results. Positioning corrections data relies on precise timing measurements of satellite signals. The signals travel through the Earth's atmosphere, which introduces errors due to ionospheric and tropospheric delays. The aim of this research was to examine the eBee X and its global GNSS accuracy by comparing the RTK and PPK methods at different base station distances in photogrammetry …

Using Unmanned Aircraft Systems To Investigate The Detectability Of Burmese Pythons In South Florida, Joseph Cerreta, William Austin, David Thirtyacre, Scott S. Burgess, Peter Miller

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

Burmese pythons are an invasive, non-native species of snake to southern Florida and attempts at eradicating the snakes had yielded mixed results. The current rate of detection had been reported as 0.05%. The purpose of this research project was to determine if a UAS equipped with a near-infrared (NIR) camera could be used to detect pythons at a higher rate when compared to a RGB camera. The approach involved collecting 55 images from RGB and NIR cameras, over carcass pythons at flying heights of 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 meters. A likelihood ratio consisting of a true positive rate …

Intention To Complain About Unmanned Aircraft System Noise: A Structural Equation Analysis, Robert Brents

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Aircraft noise has a long and documented history as a source of public annoyance and a driver of noise complaints. The impending large-scale use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)s could expose a broader cross-section of the public to a new type of aircraft noise. Recent research notes some reactions to UAS noise, but no rigorous analyses of public intention to complain about UAS noise have been found.

Due to the potential proliferation of UASs and their attendant noise, understanding public reaction could advise both government and industry. Governments at all levels could apply the results to inform policies related to …

Characteristics Of Unmanned Aircraft System (Uas) Sightings And Airport Safety, Cheng Wang, Sarah M. Hubbard

Journal of Aviation Technology and Engineering

This paper presents the characteristics of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) sightings and discusses these characteristics in the context of airport safety using airport operational data. An unmanned aircraft in the vicinity of a commercial airport may be a potential threat to aircraft operations, and may result in operational and economic impacts if it causes an airport delay or shutdown. To ensure a record of UAS activity, the Federal Aviation Administration collects and publishes a UAS Sightings Report. This study analyzed UAS sightings and found that they vary by time of year and time of day, with more sightings in the …

Utilizing Uas To Support Wildlife Hazard Management Efforts By Airport Operators, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Ryan Wallace

Publications

The FAA requires airports operating under the Code of Federal Regulations Part 139 to conduct a wildlife hazard assessment (WHA) when some wildlife-strike events have occurred at or near the airport. The WHA should be conducted by a Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologist (QAWB) and must contain several elements, including the identification of the wildlife species observed and their numbers; local movements; daily and seasonal occurrences; and the identification and location of features on and near the airport that could attract wildlife. Habitats and land-use practices at and around the airport are key factors affecting wildlife species and the size of …

Utilizing Uas To Support Wildlife Hazard Management Efforts By Airport Operators, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Ryan Wallace, Anthony Chimino, Jose Cabrera Jr, Robert Sliwinski

Publications

Purpose of our Study:

To investigate how UAS technologies could be safely and effectively applied to identify hazardous wildlife species to aviation operations as well as potential wildlife hazard attractants within the airport jurisdiction.

The Impact Of Uas On The Passenger Airline Industry, Matthew Whitten

Senior Honors Theses

This study seeks to cover the state of modern autonomous unmanned aerial systems (UAS) integration into commercial aviation, the future applications of the technology in the airline industry, and the roadblocks currently hindering its integration into passenger operations. Although great advancements are being made in the field, technological developments, economic impact, legal restrictions, airline cost, and public perception stand in the way of the full adaptation of autonomous technology into everyday passenger operations. However, technology is rapidly developing, perhaps allowing for the possibility of autonomous air travel even today, but there are likely years of refinement before regulators, executives, and …

Can The Timeframe Of Reported Uas Sightings Help Regulators?, Spencer Erik Pitcher, Kelly A. Whealan-George

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Remotely controlled small aircraft, otherwise known as Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or drones have started to impact the United States National Airspace System by interfering with the safe flight of aircraft. As the UAS industry continues its expected growth into the future, lawmakers, as well as regulators at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the aviation community must be able to predict when there will be more UAS craft in the air that could cause an interruption to air traffic so that more resources can be allocated optimally to counter the threat of UAS craft. The purpose of this study …

Viability And Application Of Mounting Personal Pid Voc Sensors To Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Cheryl Lynn Marcham, Scott Burgess, Joseph Cerreta, Patti J. Clark, James P. Solti, Brandon Breault, Joshua G. Marcham

Publications

Using a UAS-mounted sensor to allow for a rapid response to areas that may be difficult to reach or potentially dangerous to human health can increase the situational awareness of first responders of an aircraft crash site through the remote detection, identification, and quantification of airborne hazardous materials. The primary purpose of this research was to evaluate the remote sensing viability and application of integrating existing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors with small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technology to detect potentially hazardous airborne contaminants in emergency leak or spill response situations. By mounting the personal photoionization detector (PID) with volatile organic compound …

Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Acoustic Analysis For Noninvasive Marine Mammal Response: An Exploratory Field Study, David Thirtyacre, Gennifer Brookshire, Sarah Callan, Brittany Arvizu, Patrick Sherman

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

As in countless other fields of human endeavor, small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) have the potential to benefit pinniped (Pinnipedia; e.g., Phocidae [seals], Otariidae [sea lions], and Odobenidae [walruses]) response efforts. The employment of sUAS could give responders a close-up look at animals in distress in order to determine their condition as well as develop a response strategy. However, unlike other subjects that are regularly inspected by sUAS (e.g., croplands and civil infrastructure) pinnipeds may respond to the distinctive sound generated by small, multirotor sUAS. This reaction may include retreating into the water en masse, which could put …

Identification Of Wind-Induced Hazard Zones Impacting Uas Bridge Inspection, Jack J. Green, John Mott

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) continue to grow in both popularity and utility within the national airspace system. The use of commercial UAS for civil inspection, specifically that of bridge structures, is becoming commonplace among practitioners and academics alike. The development of an integrated bridge-inspection hazard model provides a way for UAS operators to prepare for and respond to changing environmental conditions that could otherwise prevent a successful UAS flight. The interaction of wind-induced airflow with bridge surfaces creates an aerodynamic wake that can result in hazardous conditions for a UAS platform operating in close proximity. An analysis of this airflow …

Evaluating Laanc Compliance And Air Traffic Collision Hazards Posed By Small Unmanned Aircraft Operations In Controlled Airspace, Ryan J. Wallace Ed.D., John M. Robbins Ph.D., James Holliman M.B.A., Jon M. Loffi Edd, Donald S. Metscher D.B.A., Taylor Rogers

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

On July 23, 2019, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expanded the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC)—the system that processes airspace approvals for sUAS operators in controlled airspace—to include recreational operations. Under LAANC, sUAS operators submit flight request information to one of 14 LAANC Service Suppliers via a mobile or online application. Flight request data is checked against UAS Facility Maps, NOTAMs, and Temporary Flight Restrictions to ensure compliance. Small UAS operators then receive a digital, automated authorization in near-real time. As of May 23, 2019, 591 airports across the United States are included in the LAANC system. Researchers …

Integrating Aviation Technology, Emergency Services, And Human Resilience: Considerations From Social Scientists, Chelsea A. Lenoble Ph.D., Joel M. Billings Ph.D., Allison A. Kwesell Ph.D., Ray H. Chang Ph.D.

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have a range of applications within the field of disaster response. This presentation offers a novel framework of psychosocial considerations designed to advance UAS and disaster management integration. Social scientists highlight important challenges to the effective integration of three primary entities: UAS, the team of teams that responds to disasters, and populations affected by disasters.

The presentation adopts an emerging theoretical perspective on the intersection between UAS capabilities and disaster phases and extends it by bringing necessary attention to social science issues. Specifically, the framework outlines psychosocial considerations and areas of improvement for preparation (training), response …

Uas For Public Safety Operations: A Comparison Of Uas Point Clouds To Terrestrial Lidar Point Cloud Data Using A Faro Scanner, Joseph S. Cerreta, Scott S. Burgess, Jeremy Coleman

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) can be useful tools for public safety agencies during crime or vehicle accident scene investigations if it can provide value to the resource-constrained agency. The speed of data collection, while minimizing first responder risk, while sustaining an acceptable level of accuracy and precision compared to other tools is where the agency may find value. During a recent homicide investigation in Florida, a UAS provided saved 81% in law enforcement labor hours with an acceptable level of accuracy compared to traditional methods. The purpose of this research was to compare UAS to determine if there were differences …

Evaluating The Merit Of Implementing A Safety Management System Into An Unmanned Aerial Systems Company, Nathan Phillips, Jennifer Herr

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Safety Management System (SMS) implementation into small Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) organizations is only now beginning to happen. Because of the lack of research into this area and its cutting edge application in unmanned aviation, a look into the potential benefits as well as the differences from manned avation seems appropriate.

The Impact Of Shadows On Partitioning Of Radiometric Temperature To Canopy And Soil Temperature Based On The Contextual Two-Source Energy Balance Model (Tseb-2t), Mahyar Aboutalebi, Alfonso F. Torres-Rua, Mac Mckee, Hector Nieto, William Kustas, Calvin Coopmans

AggieAir Publications

Tests of the most recent version of the two-source energy balance model have demonstrated that canopy and soil temperatures can be retrieved from high-resolution thermal imagery captured by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). This work has assumed a linear relationship between vegetation indices (VIs) and radiometric temperature in a square grid (i.e., 3.6 m x 3.6 m) that is coarser than the resolution of the imagery acquired by the UAV. In this method, with visible, near infrared (VNIR), and thermal bands available at the same high-resolution, a linear fit can be obtained over the pixels located in a grid, where …

The Changing Face Of Airmanship And Safety Culture Operating Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Tracy Lamb

Student Works

The notion of using drones for commercial purposes has evolved in the past 5 years from the initial “boom” of excitement around this, somewhat of a novelty and curiosity, to more calculated and sophisticated use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones. In the hands of true professionals, drones can offer highly efficient and profitable solutions for industrial, and commercial inspections and other data capturing tasks. The appetite for safe and efficient collection of data is a changing face of safety cultures and how teams and individuals apply airmanship principles, and how inspection crew and UAS crew interact. UAS are …

United States Air Force Applications Of Unmanned Aerial Systems (Uas): A Delphi Study To Examine Current And Future Uas Autonomous Mission Capabilities, Alberto Sigala

Theses and Dissertations

As UAS technology continues to grow and enable increased autonomous capabilities, acquisition and operational decision makers must determine paths to pursue for existing and emerging mission areas. The DoD has published a number of 25-year unmanned systems integration roadmaps (USIR) to describe future capabilities and challenges. However, these roadmaps have lacked distinguishable stakeholder perspectives. Following the USIRs concept, this research focused on UAS autonomy through the lens of UAS subject matter experts (SMEs). We used the Delphi method with SMEs from USAF communities performing day-to-day operations, acquisitions, and research in UAS domains to forecast mission capabilities over the next 20 …

Comparison Of Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Uas) For Agriculture Monitoring, Joseph Cerreta, Kristine M. Kiernan

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Florida citrus growers need inexpensive methods to observe citrus plants to detect disease and stress consistently. Health vegetation indices, such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) collected from Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), can be used to identify variation in plant health. Simple-to-operate UAS may enable growers to determine within-field variation more frequently than with inspections from scouts, providing more frequent knowledge about the crop condition. This research compared two low-cost fixed-wing UAS, a $5,000 Parrot Disco Pro Ag and a $16,690 senseFly eBee, each equipped with a Parrot Sequoia multispectral camera, to determine if there were differences in the …