THE AIRPORT WITHOUT PILOTS OR AIRCRAFT

In April of this year, the Spanish air safety authority, along with the ministerial departments of the government, announced that pilotless aircraft, or “drones” as they have become known, will be banned from flying for commercial activities in the country´s air space.

This move would ban the use of remotely flown aircraft which are currently used for photography, irrigation, security and other purposes, although it would not rule out the use of military drones.

The exclusion of the flying devices from the skies of Spain may seem like nothing more than the means of controlling a potential hazard, but the subject raised the question as to what would therefore happen to the aerodrome built specifically for drones in the Huelva area of Andalucía.

Between the central and autonomous governments, 40 million euro was invested in the CEUS, or Centro de Ensayos y Experimentación de Aviones no Tripulados de Medio y Gran Tamaño, in El Aeronosillo. The site, on land belonging to the Moguer area, near the Doñana Natural Park, was already the subject of considerable controversy as the construction was protected by environmental laws, as it is the home breeding lynx, a species in extreme threat of extinction.

Now, rather than banning drones at the facility outright, the government is proposing a series of controls to restrict the types of aircraft that can use the facility. However, according to Rosa Díez, the coordinator for the UPyD group, “there is currently no aerospace company in the market that intends to build a drone that can use CEUS”, and although the restrictions are eased for those aircraft over 650 kilos in weight, no such aircraft actually exists around the globe.

In fact, 90% of the drones on the list are unable to use the airfield under the current rules. There is only one, which belonging to Airbus, the Atalante model, that has already flown in Spain and therefore unlikely to need test facilities.

A second centre was also contructed in the Jaén town of Villacarrillo, known as the Centro de Vuelos Experimentales con Aviones no Tripulados, operated by ATLAS, the Air Traffic Laboratory for Advanced unmanned Systems. This was the first centre to open, with a 4.2 million euro budget.

The safety agency and government are now working on the document to regulate the use of drones, the results which will be published once complete, when the future of these multimillion euro, environmentally destroying facilities may be revealed.

Filed under: http://www.theleader.info/article/43994/

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