FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine 
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute 

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-23/09

Title and Subtitle: UAS Air Carrier Operations Survey: Training Requirements

Report Date: March 2023

Authors: Williams, K., Mofle, T., Hu, P.

Abstract: There is an increasing demand to utilize unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for an array of new applications currently outside the scope of written regulations, such as air taxi services, package delivery, and crop dusting. The Code of Federal Regulations on Aeronautics and Space (14 CFR) is restrictive to air carrier applications for UAS. In particular, small UAS (sUAS) regulations (14 CFR § 107 [Federal Regulation for Commercial sUAS]) do not explicitly address air carrier operations. Regulations relevant to air carrier operations (14 CFR § 121 [Federal Regulation for Air Carriers] and § 135 [Federal Regulation for Commuter Air Operations]) were not written to include the use of UAS. Training requirements have been extensively researched in traditionally piloted aircraft operations (see Torrence et al., 2020), but recent and continuing developments in UAS applications and UAS automation have resulted in changing roles and responsibilities for crewmembers. Training literature was gathered in an annotated bibliography, and experts in both industry and academia were surveyed about current and future policies from their companies to gauge the future direction of UAS operations. This survey will help inform current and planned future UAS operations related to training. It will also allow for regulations of last-mile and high-altitude-long-endurance operations so that these novel applications of UAS can be safely integrated into the National Airspace System (NAS). Findings may inform future regulations concerning UAS training for crewmembers related to air carrier operations and potentially help standardize these requirements. Altogether, this will support the safe and efficient integration of UAS into the NAS.

Key Words: unmanned aircraft systems, UAS Training, UAS Training requirements, air carrier operations, testing, knowledge 

No. of Pages: 106