Unmanned aircraft get airspace approval

The FAA on August 15 granted the U.S. Air Force a certificate of authorization (COA) to fly its Global Hawk unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) throughout the National Airspace System (NAS), in support of homeland defense missions. The turbofan-powered, DC-3-size Global Hawk is a high-altitude (FL500+) long-range (U.S. to Australia nonstop) reconnaissance/attack UAV, with fully redundant IFR capabilities, including IRS/GPS navigation, autopilot, mode-S, VHF/UHF/satcom for ATC voice communications and a LAAS-like differential GPS autoland system.