Airworthiness and Protocol Development for Safe Night Flying Missions for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems (sUASs)

There are approximately twelve hours out of every day in which UAS are rarely utilized. Night time flights are a relatively untouched field of application for small UAS in part due to the risks associated. However, there is much to be gained through remote sensing at night in the realms of agriculture, environmental monitoring, species monitoring or surveillance. This paper introduces and steps through the design process for illumination systems on small UAVs for the purpose of safe night time remote sensing. Undoubtedly, there many risks to take into consideration to provide safe night flying, which the FAA has accounted for with restrictions due to safety concerns for public and property (including other aircrafts). Beyond the apparent riskiness, there are human factors that need be accounted for, such as pilot stress and situational awareness. This paper, for the first time, introduces the design, construction and human factors strategies associated with developing a mission operational protocol for night flying small UAVs based on our developments in additional airworthiness.