Federal Register / Vol. 85, No. 251 / Thursday, December 31, 2020 / Notices 86977 

Issued in Washington, DC, on December 

21, 2020. 

Brandon Roberts, 

Executive Director, Office of Rulemaking. 

Petition for Exemption 

Docket No.: FAA–2020–0984. 

Petitioner: General Atomics 

Aeronautical Systems, Incorporated. 

Section(s) of 14 CFR Affected: 

§ 91.109(a). 

Description of Relief Sought: General 

Atomics Aeronautical Systems, 

Incorporated seeks relief from Title 14 

Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) 

§ 91.109(a), which requires civil aircraft 

used for flight instruction to have dual 

fight controls. The petitioner requests to 

conduct customer crew training of 

individuals that have not been issued an 

FAA pilot certificate under part 61, 

when operating, at or above 2,500 feet 

above ground level (AGL), a companyowned unmanned aircraft systems 

(UAS) issued a Special Airworthiness 

Certificate—Experimental Category 

(SAC–EC). 

[FR Doc. 2020–28915 Filed 12–30–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

Notice of Industry Meeting 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), DOT. 

ACTION: Notice of public meeting. 

SUMMARY: The FAA is hosting a virtual 

industry day to introduce the Small 

Airport Surveillance Sensor (SASS) 

Project to the aviation community. The 

FAA will present and discuss the SASS 

Project vision, objectives, and project 

timelines. The SASS Industry Day will 

provide a platform for interested 

organizations to learn about the 

technical details of the SASS system, 

and to potentially collaborate on 

projects with the FAA on SASS. 

DATES: The virtual meeting will be held 

on February 4, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to 

12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. 

Registrations to attend the SASS 

Industry Day must be completed by 

January 29, 2021. 

Requests for accommodations to a 

disability must be received by January 

15, 2021. 

Letters of Interest from industry to 

work with the FAA on SASS must be 

received no later than March 12, 2021. 

Further details regarding submission of 

the Letters of Interest will be provided 

during the SASS Industry Day event. 

ADDRESSES: This will be a virtual 

meeting. Those who wish to attend must 

register via the following Eventbrite 

link: https://www.eventbrite.com, search 

for ‘‘SASS Industry Day’’ under the 

Events, and click on Register. Follow-on 

electronic invitations for the virtual 

meeting will be sent to the Eventbriteregistered attendees. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Todd Lewis, SASS Project Manager, 

Technology Development & Prototyping 

Division (ANG–C51), Federal Aviation 

Administration, 800 Independence Ave. 

SW, Washington, DC 20591; telephone 

(202) 267–0875; email: Ronald.Lewis@

faa.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

There are over 500 airports in the U.S. 

with air traffic control towers. Tower 

controllers maintain situational 

awareness of surface and nearby 

airborne traffic primarily via visual 

surveillance, which can be impaired 

during times of low visibility or bad 

weather. Depending on the airport size, 

visual surveillance can be augmented 

with various means. Most of the large 

airports (surrounded by Class B 

airspace) have Airport Surveillance 

Detection Equipment—Model X (ASDE– 

X) which provides situational awareness 

to tower controllers of surface and 

nearby airborne traffic. The medium 

size airports (surrounded by Class C 

airspace) generally lack ASDE–X due to 

cost considerations. All aircraft entering 

Class B or C airspace are now required 

to have ADS–B Out capability. 

There are also approximately 350 

airports surrounded by Class D airspace 

only, which does not require the ADS– 

B Out capability. Since aircraft not 

equipped with ADS–B capability will 

continue to operate at these airports 

surrounded by Class D airspace, there is 

a need for a low-cost, all-weather 

surveillance capability to provide 

situational awareness in times of bad 

weather and/or low visibility. 

The SASS system addresses this need 

by employing a novel phased-array 

antenna, state-of-the-art digital signal 

processing and commercial off-the-shelf 

(COTS) hardware. Unlike ASDE–X, the 

SASS system only requires two sensor 

arrays and a master unit, all of which 

are located on the airport grounds. An 

SASS testbed has been implemented 

and operated at Hanscom Field in 

Massachusetts by MIT Lincoln 

Laboratory with FAA funding. 

The SASS testbed has been used to 

demonstrate active (interrogated) and 

passive (listen only) surveillance of 

Mode S and air traffic control radar 

beacon system (ATCRBS) transponders. 

The positional accuracy goals of 30 feet 

on the airport surface and 0.2 nautical 

miles (NM) out to 20 NM range have 

been achieved. Based on this 

demonstrated performance, the FAA 

wishes to begin technology transfer of 

the SASS design to industry. The SASS 

Industry Day is the first step in this 

process. 

Each industry member that is 

interested in working with the FAA to 

engage in the potential further 

development of SASS after attending 

the SASS Industry Day event must 

provide a Letter of Interest to the FAA 

which states the organization’s 

capability to undertake the development 

of the technology, past performance/ 

history in developing other secondary 

surveillance systems, proposed 

schedule for developing the technology 

and anticipated commercial use for the 

technology. 

The U.S. Department of 

Transportation is committed to 

providing equal access to this meeting 

for all participants. If you need 

alternative formats or services because 

of a disability, such as sign language, 

interpretation, or other ancillary aids, 

please contact the person listed in the 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

section. 

Issued in Washington, DC, on December 

21, 2020. 

Brandon Roberts, 

Executive Director, Office of Rulemaking. 

[FR Doc. 2020–28916 Filed 12–30–20; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4910–13–P 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 

Federal Aviation Administration 

[Summary Notice No. 2020–53] 

Petition for Exemption; Summary of 

Petition Received; BNSF Railway 

AGENCY: Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA), Department of 

Transportation (DOT). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: This notice contains a 

summary of a petition seeking relief 

from specified requirements of Federal 

Aviation Regulations. The purpose of 

this notice is to improve the public’s 

awareness of, and participation in, the 

FAA’s exemption process. Neither 

publication of this notice nor the 

inclusion or omission of information in 

the summary is intended to affect the 

legal status of the petition or its final 

disposition. 

DATES: Comments on this petition must 

identify the petition docket number and 


khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES