ASSURE UAS Airborne Collision Severity Evaluation Final Report

An FAA press conference presentation explaining why it is necessary to determine the potential severity of sUAS mid-air collisions with aircraft in order to define an Equivalent Level of Safety to manned aviation.

Volume 1 provides a summary of the entire structural portion of the study. It includes a high-level explanation of the project's scope, technical approach, evaluation and conclusions of severity of small unmanned aircraft impacts with a commercial transport jet and business jet. This summary report then provides conclusions on the influence of velocity and mass on impact damage, a comparison to bird strikes and concludes with recommendations going forward.



Volume I - Projectile and Target Definition

Volume I - UAS Database 2016-03-31

Volume II, provides a detailed report the project's scope and the selection and definition of both the "projectile" Unmanned Aircraft and the "target" commercial transport and business jets. This report centers on the quadcopter UAS and its unique characteristics.



4lb Collision Comparison Between a Quadcopter and a Bird



Quadcopter Collision to Stabilizer

Volume III, provides a detailed report the project's scope and the selection and definition of both the "projectile" Unmanned Aircraft and the "target" commercial transport and business jets. This report centers on the fixed-wing UAS and its unique characteristics.



Fixedwing Collision with Windshield

Volume IV is an evaluation of the severity of a small UAS collision with propulsion systems. This report helps us to start to understand the effects of parameters of aircraft speed, impact location, fan speed and unmanned aircraft orientation on impact severity to a unique FAA fan-blade-out model. The FAA and ASSURE are using the results of this study to establish a path forward to in studying engines more representative of commercial transport engines.



Fixedwing Engine Ingestion at Takeoff



Engine Ingestion Damage



Engine Ingestion Kinematics



Motor Component Level Test