Synergy UAS Inc.

02/07/2021

Imagine flying from your downtown office to a drone port in the suburbs. SynergyUAS safety systems are not limited to small drones used for real estate photography or making geo maps for construction sites. In the future, our safety processes will be indispensable if and when Urban Air Mobility becomes a reality. Join us and post on this page if you agree.

02/07/2021

01/28/2021

https://youtu.be/_JdO4BEd-BY

Flying cars have been a staple of futuristic fantasy since the dawn of science fiction. Now, thanks to a new crop of eager, well-funded startups, those visio...

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The latest news for you

02/14/2018

Reprinted from Reuters

Taking to the skies: Transforming the megacities of the future

By Reuters & Airbus

sponsored byairbus
Taking to the skies: Transforming the megacities of the future

The 1962 futuristic cartoon The Jetsons told us flying cars wouldn't go mainstream until 2062. Airbus isn't planning to wait that long.

By the end of this year, the aerospace giant plans a full-scale demonstration of its CityAirbus. It’s a flying vehicle for up to four passengers that will be battery-operated and autonomous, with vertical take-off and landing. The propulsion units are designed to keep noise levels low as it navigates the world’s urban expanses. Booking will be easy: Passengers will be able order their ride on a smartphone, just as they already do for ground taxis and ride-sharing. Fares aren’t projected to be much higher, although the average urban taxi driver would struggle to reach CityAirbus’ cruising speeds of 120 kilometres-per-hour (75 miles-per-hour).

For people who want more privacy than a shared taxi, Airbus is also developing the single-passenger autonomous and electric urban vehicle coined Vahana. Like the larger CityAirbus, Vahana will be electric and automated, and will have vertical take-off and landing. By taking to the air, Vahana won’t get stuck in traffic, and it should be able to travel much faster than roadways. It’s aimed at every-day use, and Airbus plans to keep its cost around the same level as a car. Vahana isn’t just targeting commuters. It can be fitted as an ambulance, to cut response times to accidents and travel times to hospitals, or to deliver cargo.

Today’s urban planners are facing much stickier traffic problems than the creators of the Jetsons could have imagined. Making it easier to fly above congested roadways can only become more urgent as more of the world’s population moves into megacities, or cities with populations of more than 10 million people. There are currently around 30 megacities globally, with the United Nations predicting there will be more than 40 by 2030. Many of these cities have traffic systems that were poorly planned, or which didn’t foresee the eventual huge growth in populations and cars.

Sometimes, cities expanded in directions that weren’t foreseen, including growing to touch other cities, and which mass-transit didn’t accommodate. Often, widening roadways for more traffic simply isn’t possible, or doing so would make the cities too unliveable for ground-level pedestrians. It can also take years of planning and construction to expand mass-transit infrastructure to match a megacity’s needs. Adding short, urban flight routes to transit options can ease ground congestion, speed emergency travel and open fresh connections to existing mass transit systems.

The shared nature of airborne commuting options can also eliminate one of the biggest drags on scarce available land in cities: the parking garage. A 2011 study from the University of California estimated there were more than 800 million parking spaces, at around 300 square feet each, in the United States alone. That’s more than two for every person in the country. At the same time, the use of automated systems for piloting can ensure that travel routes remain efficient, not just for the individual vehicles, but for air traffic in general. After all, there wouldn’t be much net benefit to simply lifting congestion off the road and into the air. But carefully choreographed urban air traffic can eliminate both accidents and the ‘wrong turns’ that slow travel. Everyday commutes by air may not hit the mainstream right away, but other daily uses for drones are on the cards.

Airbus is already on track to test this year an automated package delivery system using unmanned drones. The project, dubbed Skyways, is a collaboration with National University of Singapore. The drones - autonomous, electric octocopters - will fly packages to their designated stations, where they will be stored in lockers until customers retrieve them. Each drone will have an ‘aerial corridor’ to keep it from interfering with any other airborne traffic. In a city such as Singapore, which has an efficient post office and well-developed transportation networks, drone package delivery may seem more like a novelty than a necessity. But companies often use Singapore as a test bed for new technologies and business models. That can allow a perfected system to roll out faster and with fewer hiccups in locations that aren’t quite as developed.

Many of Asia's cities, such as Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila, have badly congested traffic, where cross-city travel is an hours-long process. An airborne package delivery system could easily save lives by ditching the roads to airlift medical supplies across town. It could also help build businesses, by making it easier to get products to customers without the need for shops or delivery vans. The next test phase for Skyways will aim to deliver packages from Singapore to ships offshore. Later iterations could assist with delivering supplies to disaster-hit regions, where roads may be impassable. Airbus will be central in this shift from ground to air transportation in urban spaces.

01/21/2018

January 20, 2018

ACCIDENT REPORTING

Do you know what to do in the event you are involved in an accident? Do you know the definition of an accident? Do you know how to file an accident report and with whom?

These are simple questions but the answers are more intricate than you think.

First, lets define an accident. There are actually two definitions. One by the FAA and the other by the NTSB.

FAA Definition
14 CFR 107.9 defines an accident as follows:

No later than 10 calendar days after an operation that meets the criteria of either paragraph (a) or (b) of this section, a remote pilot in command must report to the FAA, in a manner acceptable to the Administrator, any operation of the small unmanned aircraft involving at least:

(a) Serious injury to any person or any loss of consciousness; or
(b) Damage to any property, other than the small unmanned aircraft, unless one of the following conditions is satisfied:
(1) The cost of repair (including materials and labor) does not exceed $500; or
(2) The fair market value of the property does not exceed $500 in the event of total loss.

NTSB Accident Definition
Unmanned aircraft accident means an occurrence associated with the operation of any public or civil unmanned aircraft system that takes place between the time that the system is activated with the purpose of flight and the time that the system is deactivated at the conclusion of its mission, in which:

(1) Any person suffers death or serious injury; or

(2) The aircraft has a maximum gross takeoff weight of 300 pounds or greater and sustains substantial damage.

Both agencies require you to file a report in the event of an accident and they both include injury or damage as part of the report criteria.

Serious Injury Defined
However, they differ in their definition of "serious injury" or "substantial damage"

According to FAA's Advisory Circular AC 107-2, The FAA defines a "serious injury" on an injury scale developed by the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine Level 3 or higher. Huh? What is that you ask?

This translates to any injury that requires hospitalization even if the injury is fully reversible. Examples include head trauma, broken bones, or lacerations that require stitches.

In contrast, the NTSB classifies a serious injury that requires "hospitalization for more than 48 hours, commencing within 7 days from the date of the injury was received; (2) results in a fracture of any bone (except simple fractures of fingers, toes, or nose); (3) causes severe hemorrhages, nerve, muscle, or tendon damage; (4) involves any internal organ; or (5) involves second- or third-degree burns, or any burns affecting more than 5 percent of the body surface"

Substantial Damage
The NTSB definition of substantial damage with respect to UAS activities include damage or failure which adversely affects the structural strength, performance, or flight characteristics of the aircraft, and which would normally require major repair or replacement of the affected component.

The good news is that the NTSB only wants to know and will investigate substantial damage to UAS only if the aircraft weighs 300 lbs or more. This excludes any requirement to report small UAS that weigh less than 55 lbs.

The FAA on the other hand want to know about damage to property other than your UAS that results in repair or replacement costs exceeding $500 or more.

For example, suppose you have a flyaway situation and your Phantom IV, which costs you $1200 crashes through the window of a building totally destroying the window and totally destroying your Phantom.

Here, the FAA would require you to report to them if the cost to repair the window is $500 or more. They don't care nor is it required to report that your Phantom needs replacement. Also, since your Phantom is a sUAS, no NTSB report is required because the Phantom weighs less than 300lbs. However, if the broken glass from the window cut someone on the ground or inside the building that required stitches, you will need to report that to both the FAA and NTSB.

As you can see, these definitions are similar but do have differences that you need to be aware of to avoid the mistake of filing a report when it is not necessary or not filing a report when they are.

Reporting the Accident
First determine the extent of damage or injury to others. If you find based on the definitions above that you need to report to both the FAA and NTSB, here is how to do it.

Until recently, FAA Accident Reports were submitted online on the FAA.gov website. They now require that these reports be submitted on the FAADroneZone.FAA.gov website. This site is very different in that you need to be a registered drone user to access the site or register before submitting the report.

The NTSB report can be made by calling the NTSB:

Contact the NTSB's 24-hour Response Operations Center (ROC) at 844-373-9922 to file a report. A phone call is sufficient initially, but a written follow-up may be required.

HAVE FUN & FLY SAFE

10/04/2017

We are here at Drone World Expo booth 322. Come check us out.

09/30/2017

Once you have examined each of your safety components it is time to pull them together to see how they interconnect with each other. There is a simple rule here; the more mitigation you have and the more balanced they are between People, Platform and Processes, the more robust the safety case. The I...