A New Class of Unmanned Aircraft
Phoenix Air Unmanned receives First-in-the-Nation Authorization to Commercially Operate a New Class of Unmanned Aircraft Beyond Visual Line of Sight over Linear Infrastructure
Cartersville-based Phoenix Air Unmanned LLC has won national recognition for its use of aerial drone data capture to inspect utility transmission lines and for civil engineering, survey and land development purposes. It was among the first companies in the nation to receive FAA authorization to fly drones beyond the line of sight.
The FAA’s long-term goal is to safely integrate drones into the National Airspace System rather than set aside separate airspace exclusively for drones. Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) offer a quieter, cleaner, cheaper option to manned aircraft.
Read Georgia Trend’s Aerospace feature in our October 2023 issue: Taking Off in Georgia.
Phoenix Air Unmanned, LLC Press Release 08/29/2023, Cartersville, Georgia — Phoenix Air Unmanned (PAU) is an aerial service provider specializing in the operation of remotely piloted aircraft for critical infrastructure inspection. PAU received authorization to commercially operate the SwissDrones SDO 50 V2 beyond the visual line of sight of the pilot in command throughout the United States.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provided PAU an extension allowing inspection and patrol flights over linear infrastructure under the same flight regulations as traditional-manned aviation. This opens millions of miles of critical U.S. infrastructure to safer, more efficient, and higher-quality data capture capabilities than conventional inspection methods.
“We are committed to being stewards of the airspace and are thrilled the FAA recognizes our robust safety assurance and professionalism,” says Will Lovett, Managing Director of Phoenix Air Unmanned.
With the capability to collect a combination of datasets over long distances, PAU can perform multiple inspections efficiently in a single flight.
The SwissDrones 191-pound maximum weight enables a sensor capacity of 30 pounds and flight endurance of over two hours and beyond 60 miles. PAU will fly the aircraft for multipurpose inspections, including high resolution imaging, LiDAR data acquisition, and thermal imaging.
UAS help provide inspection for the oil and gas pipelines, and railways as well as power lines. These inspections catch potential problems before they can affect the safety and reliability of the oil, gas, goods, and electric power.
From 2017 to 2023, PAU completed 13,500 miles of transmission line inspection. The 191-pound SwissDrones offer nearly ten times the endurance and three times the lift capacity.
“We are very proud of the volume of miles inspected to date with smaller aircraft and have built a robust concept of operations that is the framework for our SwissDrones exemption. The addition of this aircraft and this FAA exemption will further enhance our capabilities and provide the most efficient scalable inspection services,” states William Wheeler, PAU’s Director of Operations.
The use of technology, as well as operational mitigations, were crucial to ensure airspace surveillance, command & control, and allow for safe scaled operations with minimal crew – this complex, multi-layered approach took a team. Industry partners included Kongsberg Geospatial, Capital Sciences, L3Harris, uAvionix, and Echodyne, providing key hardware and software to build the safety case.
About Phoenix Air Unmanned: Founded in 2014 on the principles of aviation and safety assurance, Phoenix Air Unmanned, LLC (PAU) is a sister company to the internationally-recognized Part 135 air carrier, Phoenix Air Group, Inc. PAU specializes in powerline inspection services with over 13,500 miles of utility transmission line inspected with unmanned aircraft. PAU has extensive experience in beyond visual line-of-sight flight operations, requests for authorizations and waivers from the FAA, and project management for complex UAS flight operations. In 2021 PAU became the first registered operator of the International Standards for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO) Stage 1 standards for remotely piloted aircraft systems.
Phoenix Air Unmanned, LLC is located at the Cartersville-Bartow County Airport with offices 45 minutes NW of downtown Atlanta and capable of servicing the entire United States for LiDAR survey and mapping.
Press Contact: William Wheeler
wwheeler@phoenixair.com | 770-387-2000 Ext 256
