Toy drones significant threat to manned rotorcraft, new study finds

Toy drones pose a “significant threat” to manned rotorcraft in all phases of flight, according to a new study from Aero Kinetics, an aerospace and defence firm based in Fort Worth, Texas.

Released on Thursday, the study, called The Real Consequences of Flying Toy Drones in the National Airspace System, concluded that toy drones pose a significant threat to manned rotorcraft in all phases of flight, including cruise, based upon their typical operating altitudes.

“Most people don’t understand how threatening a toy drone can be,” said W. Husley Smith, chairman and chief executive officer of Aero Kinetics, who drafted the report along with Freddie L. Main III, Aero Kinetics’ senior mechanical design engineer. “Toy drones are not unmanned aircraft. Make no mistake: lives are at stake.”

Smith noted that toy drones are not designed or built with the same aerospace standards as unmanned aircraft, they pose a hazard to both operators and innocent bystanders with their lack of insurability; and they require no significant training to operate.

The study examined what would happen when a collision occurs between a toy drone and a manned aircraft, including the potential for damage and death. The study further compared a toy drone strike with historical data on bird strikes, which are proven to cause significant damage to manned aircraft and loss of human life. According to current estimates, bird strikes cost US$951,000,000 per year in the United States alone. “Therefore, the study concludes that the impact of a toy drone, made of plastic, metal, and engineered materials, with a manned aircraft in a collision would be even more catastrophic,” Aero Kinetics said in a press release.

The company’s impact analysis said that a “head-on rotorcraft drone strike will cause the catastrophic failure of the rotorcraft’s windshield, resulting in significant damage to the aircraft and most likely injury to the pilot.” Another example is a head-on drone strike into the inlet of a turbine engine on a commercial airliner on approach or departure, which could “cause severe damage to the engine and potentially a catastrophic failure, in either case resulting in damage to the aircraft and economic loss.”

Smith added that “there is a huge risk for collisions that not only creates an alarming economic impact for aircraft, but also the human factor of losing lives onboard planes and innocent bystanders on the ground.” He said that Aero Kinetics believes the solution is multi-fold, including educating the public, doing additional testing, creating dedicated operating areas, monitoring air traffic to separate flight space and understanding and implementing effective standards for certification.

The company is also currently exploring the possibility of building a consortium to conduct further research on toy drones, which Aero Kinetics says “could help shape the future of manned aircraft design requirements and toy drone regulation, saving millions of dollars and many lives.”