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Meeting	ACGS Committee Meeting 105 - Lake Tahoe - March 2010
Agenda Location	7 SUBCOMMITTEE A -- AERONAUTIC AND SURFACE VEHICLES 7.2 Flying the Ikahna UAV at NASA Dryden
Title	Flying the Ikahna UAV at NASA Dryden
Presenter	Mark Pestana
Affiliation	NASA Dryden
Available Downloads*	presentation
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Abstract	The NASA MQ-9 Ikhana is a Predator-B/Reaper Unmanned Aircraft System, built by General Atomics, Aeronautical Systems, Inc., and modified for research. Since 2007, the aircraft has been flown seasonally with a wing-mounted pod containing an infrared scanner, utilized to provide wildfire geo-location data to various fire-fighting agencies in the western U.S. The multi-agency effort included an extensive process to obtain flight clearance from the FAA to operate under special provisions, given that UAS in general do not fully comply with current airspace regulations (e.g. sense-and-avoid requirements). Additional challenges to operating UAS are the human-machine interfaces; the control and display features which should offer the pilot/operator optimized situational awareness and responsiveness equivalent to flying manned aircraft. NASA is pioneering various UAS technologies that will enable routine access to the National Airspace System (NAS). These tools will aid in the development of technologies and integrated capabilities that will enable high value missions for science, security, and defense, and open the door to low cost, extreme duration, stratospheric flight.