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20 In conversation | Andrea Maccapani Developing standards Maccapani also gets to put his philosophy across in international forums that develop technical and operational standards for UAVs, both civilian and military. These include the European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE), in which he contributes to Working Group 105, which focuses on the safe operation of UAV systems in all types of airspace. He is also active in the Joint Authorities for Rulemaking on Unmanned Systems (JARUS), whose aim is to help national and regional authorities write their own requirements without duplicating efforts. He has also participated in various NATO Industrial Advisory Group (NIAG) activities that are focused on detection and avoidance systems, performance- based military certification and manned- unmanned teaming. “I like to give my vision of what the industry will be able to deliver, what its current status is and what it will be in five to 10 years’ time, so that regulators can draw up some standards that won’t be obsolete the moment they are published,” he says. Among the challenges facing the small UAVs sector, for example, is the need for an understanding between operators – who need to be able to provide reliable, professional services – and customers in the utilities and infrastructure sector, who need to resist the temptation to always choose the cheapest possible solution. That will not support the development of a healthy service industry, he says. For larger UAVs, he believes their routine acceptance into air traffic could revolutionise air cargo transport, if their costs can be kept down without compromising safety. A new certification approach “With current safety standards in aviation, all the rules are written in blood; some very bad things happened that drove those requirements. To me, drones can be approached differently,” he says. “Safety approaches should create systems that are safe enough to overfly people but don’t require all the safety measures used for manned aircraft. Maybe we can find a solution for designing composite structures, for example, that doesn’t have all the safety margins that go with having human life on board but that is still fit for purpose.” This, he emphasises, will mean pursuing performance-based certification. “That means you certify the system to operate under particular conditions, and you provide the relevant aviation authority with proof that you are confident with the design, based on a standard. “That is a major change in aviation, and we are looking forward to it because it can make a real difference to structural weight and so on, leading to more efficient systems that are less expensive to operate,” he says. From a personal perspective, he says he is happy to work in a complex and stimulating world, in a company that has been formed from many others. “When Leonardo became a single company we opened up a lot of possibilities for collaboration among ourselves, and we are still discovering new ones. I want to develop my career in that sense.” April/May 2019 | Unmanned Systems Technology Born in Milan in 1972, Andrea Maccapani heads the r&d for Leonardo’s UAS and Training and Simulation businesses for airborne platforms and contributes to the development strategy for them. An aviation enthusiast since childhood, he studied aerospace engineering at the Politecnico di Milano from 1992 to 1998, where he wrote a dissertation on the dynamic modelling of a helicopter’s main rotor head. At university he was active in EUROAVIA, an international organisation for aerospace students, for which he organised links with the Italian Air Force, which he subsequently joined for his national service. On leaving the Air Force in 1999, he joined Alenia Difesa (now part of Leonardo’s electronics division) as a structural analyst. In that role he worked on equipment installed in the Typhoon, Tornado and AMX tactical jets, the NH90 helicopter and other AgustaWestland (now Leonardo Helicopters) platforms. He subsequently developed expertise in radome design, then worked as a systems analyst for mission and surveillance systems on manned aircraft and land- based approach radars, before moving into product support for airborne sensors, UAVs and targets. He also took on strategic roles in the NATO Allied Ground Surveillance system and its TCAR radar, which would later be integrated into the Global Hawk HALE UAV. His next move, in 2010, brought responsibility for the technical and commercial development, and promotion of, the full-service and turnkey solutions market with the Falco UAV for military, governmental and civil applications. He was appointed to his current role in 2015, which is combined with his advice work for international standards bodies including EUROCAE, JARUS and NIAG. A keen private pilot, he competed in the Italian Aerobatic Championship. Currently he has around 500 hours on his log book. Andrea Maccapani