Runway Design Guidelines for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are used for various applications in both military and civilian roles. The benefit of having relatively small and inexpensive surveillance available allows aerial surveillance of activities. In South Africa the use of the technology for nonmilitary purposes are growing. One of the potential benefits of drone surveillance is the application of the technology in areas where full airfield facilities may not be available. This poses the challenge to evaluate an area relatively quickly to determine whether the UAV will be able to take off and land on the available terrain. Factors such as the take-off and landing length and width requirements (geometry), aircraft load (bearing capacity) and landing strip roughness (riding quality) are important to determine to ensure that these UAV will not be damaged during operations. This paper presents guidelines for the evaluation of an area to determine whether it is suitable for use as an UAV airstrip, based on simple evaluation, incorporating geometric, bearing capacity, and riding quality measurements.