News and Updates – Leading the World and Beyond in Commercial Space Transportation

Le Bourget, France Before an aerospace industry Commercial Space Panel at the Paris Air Show today, Acting Federal Aviation Administration(FAA) Administrator Daniel K. Elwell told participants that the Department of Transportation is building a regulatory framework to retain United States leadership and enable the limitless potential and possibilities of commercial space.

We look forward to working with commercial space innovators and within agencies throughout the Administration to maintain American competitiveness and safety in this critical industry, said Elwell.

Elwell credited much of the success of the United States in commercial space transportation to the administrations approach to make sure regulatory requirements do not hamstring industry. Recently, the FAA put forward a proposed rulemaking to streamline and get rid of rules that have outlived their usefulness, are duplicative, or unnecessarily burdensome. Two more rulemakings are being prepared to improve how FAA oversees spaceports and provide better access and interaction with commercial space and air traffic operations.

The Acting Administrator reasserted that safety remains the agencys primary mission and has led to a record, that to date, has resulted in no public injuries or fatalities in the more than 370 FAA-licensed commercial space activities.

Elwell cited ever-increasing launch activity as evidence in the vibrancy and growth of the commercial space sector:

  • 23 successful launches in 2017;
  • 33 successful launches in 2018, a new record; and,
  • As many as 41 launches are on the calendar for this year.

The Acting Administrator also highlighted recent milestones and success:

  • In December and February Virgin Galactic successfully completed two more crewed commercial launches going above 50 statute miles, adding five new Commercial Space Astronauts to the rolls, including the first woman, Beth Moses;
  • SpaceX and Boeing plan to carry astronauts to the Space Station on FAA-licensed launches in the near future;
  • In April, America and world saw the first commercial payload launched by SpaceXs Falcon Heavy Rocket; and,
  • Earlier this month, the FAA supported three commercial launches within three days (Rocket Lab in New Zealand, Blue Origin in Texas, and SpaceX in Florida).

News and Updates – FAA Hiring Controllers Nationwide

A window of opportunity is available to U.S. citizens interested in becoming air traffic controllers. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is accepting applications nationwide from June 14-17. The job announcement may close prior to the 17th if the number of applications exceeds the FAAs needs.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens, speak English clearly and be no older than 30 years of age (with limited exceptions). They must have a combination of three years of higher education and/or work experience. They are also required to pass a medical examination, security investigation and FAA air traffic pre-employment tests. Agency staffing needs will determine facility assignments, and applicants must be willing to work anywhere in the U.S.

Accepted applicants will be trained at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, Okla.

Active duty military members must provide documentation certifying that they expect to be discharged or released from active duty under honorable conditions no later than 120 days after the date the documentation is signed.

Interested applicants should visitwww.usajobs.govto build their applications orwww.faa.gov/Jobsfor more information about air traffic controllers.

Speech – Uber Elevate Urban Air Mobility Summit 2019

Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell
Ronald Reagan Building, Washington DC

Thank you for that kind introduction Nikhil. It is awesome to be here, soaking up the energy, creativity and innovation of a brand new form of transportation.

I find your vision for the future to be refreshing…invigorating even. And thats not easy to say, coming from where I come from.

We at the FAA have historically been a bit reticent to welcome new entrants in the National Airspace System, but that is changing rapidly.

It has to change, because this kind of energy, innovation and vision is what will fuel the future of aerospace, and frankly, get the next generation of kids interested in taking part.

They see innovation as a Tesla roadster circling the sun blasting David Bowie…or rocket boosters coming back and landing softly on the earth;

or drones delivering popsicles, or slipping the surly bonds of traffic in a flying taxi.

Hey… lets face it…you guys make aerospace cool again.

The energy you bring is also helping us at the FAA become more responsive to a rapidly evolving aerospace industry.

Gone are the days when we could ignore an entrant that was radically different. Nowadays, we either evolve or we get left behind.

We learned that the hard way when UAS technologies and an entirely new industry sprung up practically overnight and we werent ready for it.

Were sort of caught up now, but we are also determined not to let it happen again.

Thats why were out in front with urban air mobility, or UAM, working with the industry and with NASA to make sure we get it right.

Time is short companies are already testing a variety of vehicles both in the U.S. and abroad, some with passengers.

These two movements UAS and UAM really bring into focus how fast everything is changing now compared to earlier in my aviation career.

It doesnt seem possible that when I started flying as a C-141 pilot in the Air Force only 30-some years ago

yes…I realize that for a lot of the people in this crowd, 30-something years is like forever

But, when I started flying we had a dedicated navigator who would look through a small porthole in the top of the flight deck with a sextant.

Yes, a sextant. Its essentially the same equipment that Magellan used hundreds of years ago to look at the stars and get a position fix on the high seas.

Well, we got rid of the navigator and his medieval sextant in the 1980s when we ushered in the age of inertial navigation.

And soon after, computers and advanced systems design made flight engineers obsolete, leaving a pilot and copilot.

The pace of change picked up in the late 90s with the introduction of GPS, which greatly simplified navigation.

When GPS was combined with sensor and actuator miniaturization, more computer power and lithium-chemistry batteries, the unmanned aircraft revolution kicked into high gear.

And then some very bright minds saw too many people sitting in traffic and thought we can take all this technology and create a better way to move around cities-UAM.

Look what you collectively as an industry conceived and are currently working on.

These are some of the most exciting innovations and developments in aerospace since the Wright Brothers, and its all taken place over the course of a few short years.

Everyone is riveted by this. But then I put on my FAA regulator hat and now Ive got something new to keep me awake at night.

You see the ideal way of transporting people across cities. I see car-sized vehicles with multiple rotors hanging over dense urban areas.

Thats the challenge taking an industry of incredibly bright minds and fast-moving technology and joining that with a regulatory agency that wants innovation, but only if it can be safely brought into an urban environment.

Its why we have come up with the crawl, walk, run analogy.

As I said earlier, the FAA can no longer just say no to a new entrant. We are evolving and quite rapidly for us into a more responsive regulator.

And just like with technology, the pace of our evolution is accelerating.

Back in the 80s when I got into the business, it was not unusual for the FAA to take five or six years to write a rule do you have the patience for that?

It was fine to take 10-12 years to develop and certify a new aircraft type do you have the patience for that??

As you know, today, with the tech eruption that is coming to the aviation world, product cycles can be measured in months.

We dont have the luxury of so much time any more, but we have to ensure that safety is paramount. That cannot change.

So how do we do that?

We become a data-driven oversight organization that prioritizes safety above all else.

To do safety right, you have to start with a safety culture. A good safety culture produces the data you need to figure out whats really happening.

If we know about errors, we can fix the processes that led to those errors.

A safety culture demands that we infuse that safety data into all of our processes from top to bottomin a continuous loop.

When you think about how far aviation has come in a little more than a century, its hard to argue the point.

Weve gone from barnstorming to a safety record that is the envy of all modes of transportation.

We evolve in our rulemaking by transitioning from prescriptive to performance-based rules.

A few years ago, industry helped us modernize Part 23 airworthiness standards for how we certify small aircraft.

Performance-based rules will ultimately form the backbone for how UAM vehicles will be built.

For new entrants, we started with our legacy regulatory framework but have evolved to an operations first approach where we use existing rules where we can, and derive new rules where we need. As usual, safety is the primary concern.

Integrating UAS into the National Airspace System is a good example. Our process is simple: Get the data to assess our risks and then create useful regulations, policies and guidance where needed.

As a point of reference for how fast this industry is moving, the FAA has been registering manned aircraft for 92 years, and after only four years of registering drones, weve got four times as many on the books.

The UAS Integration Pilot Program, through a variety of demonstrations, is helping us capture data. Its also paying dividends on the investment side.

Recently, the FAA granted the first air carrier certification to Wing Aviation, a commercial drone operator.

Wing is doing beyond-visual line-of-sight package deliveries in rural Blacksburg, Virginia, using existing rules.

What happens next is that we gradually implement new rules to expand when and how those operators can conduct their business safely and securely.

Weve just closed the public comment period for proposed new rules that would allow small UAS to operate over people and at night.

On the horizon are rules for beyond visual-line-of-sight operations the Holy Grail of UAS rules.

To manage the traffic, were working with NASA and industry on a highly automated UAS Traffic Management, or UTM, system.

Even though were in the crawling phase of our crawl, walk, run path to full integration, were seeing positive impacts small drones are already changing the landscape of our economy and society.

And here are a few examples:

In San Diego, the Chula Vista police department and CAPE, a private UAS teleoperations company, are using drones as first responders to provide aerial views for officers to document accident or crime scenes, and search for missing persons.

Since October, they have launched drone first responders on more than 500 calls in which 67 arrests were made.

And for half of those calls, the drone was first on the scene with an average on-scene response time of 96 seconds.

Equally important is the 75 times that having the drone there first alleviated the need to send officers at all.

In Kansas, the State Department of Transportation showed us how to use drones for power line inspections and precision agriculture.

The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma is using them to bait feral hog traps.

In North Carolina, they delivered blood samples to a lab for testing.

Drones delivered automated external defibrillators in Reno, Nevada, and inspected airport ramps and perimeter fencing in Memphis.

I have a strong hunch that the benefits we discover with Urban Air Mobility will be no less extraordinary.

NASA will again be our partner in this area with their UAM Grand Challenge planned for next year.

The Grand Challenge is about bringing the best and brightest minds from government and industry together to begin live testing of carefully designed scenarios to show how a variety of vehicles and airspace management systems will or wont work together.

And most importantly, to gather data.

Thats crawling. Were not ready to walk or run yet.

Walking and running will require that these highly automated or autonomous vehicles and systems meet the FAAs and the publics safety expectations for aviation when they buy a ticket…and as weve discussed, those expectations are very high.

We understand your desire to sprint out of the starting gate, but you have to understand our safety mandate.

Lets begin this integration by working with industry to start crawling, with low-risk operations in remote areas, gathering data and evaluating safety all the while.

When were ready, well systematically graduate to high-density urban areas with semi-autonomous operations the walking phase.

And, eventually, the system will mature to fully autonomous operations in busy urban airspace running.

And thats where given the level of safety that we have in the National Airspace System we cant fail.

Achieving this final state for a radically different new entrant will be an evolutionary process. It wont occur overnight, but it also wont take as long as it would have with yesterdays FAA.

Heres my challenge to you today: Shoot for the stars the commercial aviation safety record.

In the past 10 years, there have been more than 90 million commercial flights in our NAS, carrying more than 7 billion passengers, with one fatality.

Thats a safety record thats hard to get your mind around in any human endeavor, much less one where youre carrying humans in highly advanced aerospace vehicles at 500 mph, 7 miles above the earth.

You are working to become part of an elite club…commercial aviation. Work hard.

To be part of the safest mode of transportation on the planet, your operation must become synonymous with safety.

Thats the only way to fully exploit the energy, creativity and innovation of this exciting new industry.

Thank you all.

News and Updates – U.S. Department of Transportation Announces $840 Million in Infrastructure Grants to 381 Airports in 47 States

The 432 grants will fund infrastructure projects at 381 airports around the country.

Speech – A Rebirth in Innovation

Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell
Washington, D.C.

Thank you, Mike. Thank you all for coming and focusing our attention on what promises to be one of our nations greatest achievements.

Commercial space has triggered, I believe, a rebirth in the interest not just of what lies on the edges of our atmosphere, but of creativity itself. This groupthe people here in this roomare the catalysts for what is very clearly the dawn of a new generation. A new generation for space transportation. A new generation for exploration. A new generation for innovation.

And without question, this industry has given birth to a new generation of commerce. Trade routes started on landmoved to the seathen to the sky. And now, theyre set firmly on the final frontier. Its been 50 years since Apollo 11 set down at Tranquility Base. A lot has happened. A lot continues to happen.

This, of course, comes as absolutely no surprise especially to all of you given whats taken place since the last time we spoke. Since October 2018, the numbers speak volumes: 21 launches and 1 reentry. Dozens of payloads launched.

Virgin Galactic launched in December and February with five commercial astronauts. That included Beth Moses, the first female commercial astronaut in history. Falcon Heavy had its first commercial launch in April. The FAA supported not one, not two, but three commercial launches in less than 72 hours earlier this month. One of them took place half a world awayin New Zealand.

But the most important thing that happened since we last spoke is nothing. No fatalities. No missions delayed because of licensing.

This Administration said that government needed to hold the door open for innovators. I think we have. Vice President Pence and Secretary Chao are enthusiastic about commercial space, but theyre more excited about being a catalyst for innovation. I can see this group is capitalizing on that. Were making the most of it as well. Weve got a new Associate Administrator for Commercial Space TransportationBrigadier General Wayne Monteith. We welcomed him aboard in Januaryright in the middle of the shutdown. Lets just say hes not afraid of uncertainty.

His arrival may have been inauspicious, but Wayne has come at the right time. The proposed streamlined launch and reentry rule was published in draft form in March and posted to the Federal Register in mid-April with the comment period set at 60 days.

Weve received dozens of comments so far. Almost all have asked that the comment period be extended. No exaggeration there: almost every single comment made that point. And let me just say…we heard you.

Administratively, the recent FAA Reauthorization called for us to stand up an Office of Spaceports within the Office of Commercial Space. Im pleased to report its up. The office will act as the central point of contact for all spaceport activities. Congress also mandated that we consult with industry and our government partners and thats well underway.

Additionally, the Spaceports Categorization and the Airspace Access ARCs have made considerable progress. We expect a final report from the Airspace Access ARC any day now. The Spaceports ARC sent us their recommendations and while a specific categorization scheme was not identified, they provided a lot of food for thought. I know that Wayne is actively working through these recommendations with his counterparts throughout the FAA.

As the Secretary announced last month, AST is reorganizing. The licensing workload is increasing substantially. We need to be positioned to meet the expectations of performance based rules. So, weve got to change the way we work to meet that challenge in the most efficient and effective manner.

For your part, COMSTAC has also been busy. I understand youve been out to the FAAs Command Center in Warrenton to learn more about how Collaborative Decision Making works and how it might be applied to the commercial space transportation industry. CDM proved to be a game-changer for commercial aviation. A system that was once plagued with delays and scheduling hijinks now has evolved into a shared responsibility for efficiency. The carriers recognize that theres money to be made for all when everyone is working together. What everyone learnedno surprise to meis that safety and efficiency go hand in hand. You cant have one without the other.

This kind of forward-leaning, proactive attention will help keep the commercial space industry safe now and for years to come.

I also understand that you saw our Space Data Integrator project. Here, too, we are looking at ways in which we can accelerate these kind of innovations. We dont just want to integrate commercial space operations into the NAS more quickly and efficiently: we need to. We dont plan to do this alone. Count on us engaging you in these deliberations.

That said, questions remain.

Last time I was here I suggested your industry look to CDM as a means for increasing safety industry wide. Youve taken the first step. But that begs other questions. Notably whats next? How might CDM work for commercial space? Is it even a fit at all? If not, what other ways can firms in this highly-competitive and innovative industry work together to protect public safety?

Additionally, I know you are all very interested in export control. While this is not technically in our lane, FAA is happy to host these discussions. You have my commitment that the FAA intends to continue to advocate for the U.S. commercial space transportation industry with our colleagues across the globe. As a matter of fact, I am heading to the Paris Air Show in a couple of weeks. Ill be participating in a panel on commercial space transportation with the specific intention to let them know were making great strides. I love that I have such a good story to tell. We look forward to working with all of you and our interagency partners to maintain US competitiveness in this critical industry.

Ill close in the same way I closed my last speech to COMSTAC, and for those whove heard me in other venues, the way I close most remarks.

Safety. It bears repeating. If safety is not the hinge on which your company turns, you will not survive. The safest businessesin the long runare the most profitable. When you cut corners, youre actually cutting profits. It might not catch up with you right away, but make no mistake, it will, and it will do so in spectacular fashion. Theres no way around this. Safety has to be the underpinning for everything you do. This industry can ill afford the barnstorming reputation that beset aviation a hundred years ago.

The flying public wont stand for it, because aviation safety is a given.

Today its a commercial airline flight to Albuquerque. Tomorrow it will be a commercial space flight in low earth orbit either way…passengers will expect the same level of safety. But, I think this industry is up to the task. Yours is not a countdown to liftoff, it is a countdown to safety.

And from where I stand, you are well on the way. Thanks.