Examining UAS Employment Expectations and Requirements

Unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technology is radically changing how organizations, such as government agencies, non-profit corporations, and companies, apply aviation resources. Unmanned aviation is supporting improved efficiency, expanded capability, and heightened reliability through an increasing number of uses relating to: a) research and development and training-education, b) event filming, c) industrial, utility, and environmental projects, d) real estate, e) construction activities, f) agricultural, g) press and media, and h) state/local emergency services. The increasing application, and subsequent operational growth, is occurring in response to maturing technology, refined operational management and permissibility, innovative concept development, demonstrated capability, enhanced supportability, and the availability of specialized education and training opportunities. Technological advancement, regulatory changes, economic development, and widespread adoption of this technology is also leading to an observable growth of related employment opportunities. The Federal Aviation Administration has indicated that there are currently 116,027 remote pilots certified to operate small UAS in the National Airspace System, with growth to almost 350,000 by 2023. The examination of current career opportunities, in connection with commonly advertised job types and the associated roles and responsibilities, could better inform future UAS curricula design and enhancement efforts. This paper and associated presentation will feature an in-depth examination of such positions to categorize type and summarize prevalent attributes, while also highlighting notable features such as popular hiring locations, salary estimation, and experience-levels. The intent is to provide a detailed summary of hiring expectations and identify potential opportunities for improving academic alignment and career development efforts

Adaptation of forward military airspace management for civilian UAS emergency services operations

Potential use of unmanned aircraft system (UAS) to save lives, improve safety, and protect property has generated preliminary research in three major areas of the fire service, including aviation, structure and wildland scenarios. Roadblocks to the effective use of UAS technology will be discussed with a focus on command, control, and communication (C3) issues and governmental actions to limit the use of UAS due to aviation integration safety concerns. The results of this research will include presented adaptation of Joint Terminal Air Controller (JTAC) methodology, typically used for military command and control (Deptula & Dahl, 2003), for civilian emergency services operations as a possible solution to C3 issues involving UAS assets. As has been evidenced in recent wildland fires, integration of UAS into firefighting operations has the potential to save life and property by expediting disaster assessment and providing time-critical information for use in the decision-making processes (Davis, 2013). UAS could provide incident commanders enhanced situational awareness of emergency events, including feedback of action effectiveness, status of changing conditions, and availability of assets (Terwilliger et al., 2015). Implementation of JTAC strategies may provide oversight of UAS technology to shorten the decision cycle of on scene commanders; further supporting deployment and de-confliction of assets in the turbulent and dynamic conditions of a response effort