Attitudes toward UAV integration into the National Airspace System

Integration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) into the National Airspace System (NAS) is an inevitable consequence of the growing market demand for routine use of such systems. In order to achieve full integration into the existing NAS infrastructure there are many technical and regulatory barriers to overcome. Further to this a number of Human Factors issues have also been identified, and in order to achieve the natural evolution of the NAS to accommodate routine UAV operations it is essential that these factors are considered. The NAS is considered a highly complex socio-technical system that has a number of key stakeholders that oversee and use this system safely and efficiently. Therefore to affect any sort of change within the NAS it is important to better understand the attitudes held of three of the main stakeholders; Air Traffic Controllers, Pilots of manned aircraft, and UAV pilots. An online survey was distributed across these stakeholders to highlight attitudes held by each group. Survey responses (N=198) were analysed are discussed in relation to perceived attitudes held, and differences, between the stakeholders of the NAS.