Neal Rickner Chief Operating Officer
Makani 2175 Monarch St Alameda, CA 94501 USA nealrickner@makanipower.com www.makanipower.com
Airborne Wind Energy Systems as an Obstruction:
Makani’s Journey with the US Federal Aviation Administration
Neal Rickner Makani
Sustained engagement with the US Federal Aviation Ad-ministration (FAA) resulted in the announcement that Air-borne Wind Energy (AWE) systems in the United States will be regulated as obstructions under 14 CFR Part 77. This means AWE systems will be regulated in a similar way to large buildings, towers and Horizontal Axis Wind Tur-bines (HAWTs).
Makani’s 10+ years of engagement with the FAA began with early conversations about how AWE systems present an obstruction that would be perceived by pilots as suchÐalways in the same geographic location. This led to a collaboration with the FAA to develop a lighting and marking scheme for Makani’s 20kW demonstrator; which was flown with the FAA observing at Makani’s Sherman Island test site in 2013.
The Makani-FAA collaboration continued as Makani de-veloped the M600, a 600kW 26m wingspan kite. In 2016 the FAA issued a temporary determination of no hazard (DNH) for Makani’s Hawaii test site, allowing Makani to operate for a limited time. This DNH also provided the basis for the Norwegian Civil Aviation Administration to issue a permit for Makani to operate at Metcentre in Nor-way.
In late 2018/early 2019 the FAA observed the M600 in Hawaii and reached final conclusions. As a
re-sult, Makani’s DNH is on track to become a perma-nentÐmarked as an obstruction in a similar way to other wind turbines on aviation charts.
Makani M600 energy kite in flight in Hawaii. April 2019.
References:
[1] "Notification for Airborne Wind Energy Systems". Docket ID: FAA-2011-1279. https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=FAA-2011-1279 [2] łTitle 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) Part 77ž https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=c957224f6e2b4fb1f2fc 236f5da09558&node=pt14.2.77&rgn=div5t
