UAV Pilots Cleared for Takeoff

The Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy News has unearthed a Federal Aviation Administration report setting out guidelines for the medical certification of unmanned aircraft pilots operating in U.S. skies. As Secrecy News points out, it may seem odd that unmanned aircraft need pilots, but they do. These pilots are just on the ground somewhere. Of course, because they're on the ground, UAV pilots don't have to pass quite the level of rigorous physical screening as their colleagues in the skies. The report says FAA officials believe UAVs offer an opportunity for disabled persons to pilot aircraft. Here's what the FAA concluded after researching the issue:

This research addressed the medical requirements necessary for unmanned aircraft (UA) pilots for successful flight in the National Airspace System (NAS). Given that an existing medical certification was recommended, the question of which class of certification to propose was based on the perceived level of risk imposed by the potential incapacitation of the UA pilot. A second-class medical certification was judged to be the most acceptable, considering that there were several factors that mitigated the risk of pilot incapacitation relative to those of manned aircraft. First, factors related to changes in air pressure could be ignored, assuming that control stations for non-military operations would be on the ground. Second, many of the current UA systems have procedures that have been established for lost data link. Lost data link, where the pilot cannot transmit commands to the aircraft, is functionally equivalent to pilot incapacitation. Third, the level of automation of a system determines the criticality of pilot incapacitation because some highly automated systems (e.g., Global Hawk) will continue normal flight whether a pilot is or is not present.