Dragons and aviation bureaucracy

Question

Once you do the handwaving needed to explain a modern-day world with flight-capable dragons in it, how would said dragons interact with the bureaucracy surrounding flying in the modern world? What sort of pilot's license would they hold? Would they get certified as an aircraft of some sort (perhaps in the Experimental category)? How would they display their registration? What would a checkride look like for them? How would they handle getting a medical certificate? What would annual inspections look like?

Update based on comments: think along the lines of a sentient dragon, with an average intelligence along the lines of the smarter end of humans, and the ability to speak and read English, although they may need a typist to handle writing/forms-filling. Keep also in mind that they'd be sharing airspace with human-built aircraft, as well as some infrastructure (I'd envision them as capable of STOL, but not quite VTOL -- but even helicopters need runways in certain cases).

Also, I was thinking they'd vary in size, but be no larger than a widebody aircraft, with RJ or bizjet-sized dragons much more commonplace. They'd be capable of high altitudes, as I see it -- getting into Class A airspace wouldn't be terribly challenging for them. Flight speeds would be slow, though -- they are most clearly limited to subsonic speeds, and likely to spend much of their time at relatively slow airspeeds to keep energy expenditure down; they'd also be able to see and hear a jet coming in VFR conditions, but wake turbulence, especially for the combination of a smaller dragon hitting a bigger airplane's wake, would be a hazard to them still, and they'd be large enough to generate significant wake turbulence of their own.

Answer 1

Dragons would run the FAA

One day, you're flapping along, torching pigeons, and those runty little ground creatures that taste good with ketchup start making an awful racket. "Must be that Henry Ford again," you think to yourself. Humans these days and their internal combustion engines. Something sounds different this time. You look around and do a double take when you realize that the humans have learned to fly. Obviously, they can't be allowed to do this willy-nilly, but you've rather come to like some of the humans, so torching the lot won't do. Plus, humans invented ice cream.

Instead you call a council of world leaders to discuss when and how these new devices can be used. Obviously, they can't just fly everywhere, disturbing the peace. They'll have to fly in designated flight lanes, and report what times they'll be flying where, so any dragons that cross their path would have ample notice to watch out.

Dragons, of course, will keep flying where they want like they always do. Why should it be any different? After all, they are dragons. They'll have an additional responsibility, though: reporting errant human pilots to the FAA for removal of their licenses, unless, of course, the reporting dragon is hungry at the time, which is why all planes will be required at all times to carry an ample supply of ketchup.

Answer 2

Depends on size and intelligence of dragons

If dragon is "animal" (domesticated, hopefully) and their intelligence is like a horse or dog, we can treat them the same as "objects" because they can be set to fly only on command.

Of course, in that case you should have somewhere "breeding" facilities where young dragons are trained (something like obedience training for help dogs) and such areas would be either "no fly zone" or "high altitude only zone" (assuming dragon flight capacity as normal propelled plane)

If dragon is intelligent as humans, you have to treat them as "person" and give them some human dragon rights. The "training" would look more like school where elder dragons would train youngsters in common flying rules (look both sides before flying over burj khalifa tower!) and most likely, there would be "fly rules" which could differ country to country (fly on the left over Great Britain)

If dragon is small to hold two people, you could treat rules for them as for Cessna planes and flying in low populated areas would be about the same as flying a small plane here. I am not aviation expert, but I think that flying (relatively) small dragon over Alaska would be easier than doing the same over New York city.

The bigger dragon the bigger issue, and if you have really big dragons, I would assume you either drastically control the breeding of dragons or you allow dragons only to fly in low populated areas.

As of the documents:

• Flying a dragon can only do a trained human (as pilot). You can mount other people to dragon, but you have to provide them a proper seating. Dragons would be not used for "travel" rather for "adrenaline sports"
• Only given breed of dragon, and well trained (or having proper school diploma, if dragon is intelligent) are allowed to high populated areas
• Communication with towers would be done over in-helmet (of pilot) accessories, such helmet would probably have also "radar responder" mounted
• If dragons are intelligent, then radar responding device and some means of in flight communication device is a must, if such dragon wants to fly inside high populated areas.

Answer 3

There's a difference between a hunk of metal and a dragon.

We built planes because we can't fly naturally. Planes are big, cumbersome machines that don't work without someone controlling them. While someone still has to control a dragon, that someone can be the dragon itself.

Dragons are built for flying. Their in-flight responses are much quicker because they get instantaneous feedback on their control inputs, so to speak. In an aeroplane, the plane provides the feedback but it is not linked to the pilot's brain and he won't immediately understand what to do - the information has to be read, understood, then interpreted according to the pilot's training. Dragons are born with the innate ability to sense changes and respond instinctively, as a natural response.

For this reason, they do not need regulation in flight. They are able to fly as easily as we can walk and collisions with aeroplanes would be almost nonexistent because of their reactions.

However, what we might want to do is talk to them about our own ground safety procedures. For example, the danger of close proximity to jet engines and the fact that having a dragon make its nest on 27L at Heathrow would actually be a rather serious problem for us. They might, perhaps, be persuaded to use alternative landing and nesting grounds.

It's not so much about regulating dragons because they're dangerous in the air, but working together with them to make sure that their innocuous mistake doesn't cause major disruption for us.

Answer 4

One thing people aren't considering is how much faster planes will likely travel than dragons. Let's say Dragons fly, travelling, at an average speed of 120 mph, which is much faster than any land animal and much faster than any dragon in fiction. The recommended takeoff speed for large commercial airplanes is around 200 mph, and the flight speed is around 550 mph (according to Google), so while the dragons might be more maneuverable and hear them coming, they may or may not realize that they have to move out of the way to avoid being creamed before its much too late, which considering the speed difference is likely a few seconds. The good news is that dragons probably won't bother flying at 35000 ft, so they'll mostly just need to be restricted from flying within a few miles of major airports or military airfields. This of course assumes the dragons are intelligent and realize the danger to themselves, if not the humans may have to develop environmentally friendly ways of keeping them away from airports (dragon whistles?), or failing that just shoot them down if they get too close and hope the rest get the message. If they were more like wild animals though, they probably would be mostly scared off by the sound of jet engines like real birds.

Answer 5

I’d suggest backing up a step. Presumable, these dragons predate modern aviation, and have been using their instincts to avoid collisions for millennia before humans started flying. They’ve now got an older right to the airways, and historically, it is as well established as your right to walk down the street.

So if you want to consider flight rights, paperwork, and insist they get licenses or fill out paperwork to travel, you have to consider the political system, and who’s in charge.

Are the dragons the poor underclass? If so, they might have lost their rights to the airways when the wealthier, more powerful humans developed flight. Under this system, they might need licenses for most or all flights, or only be allowed to fly over the their own homes, or only at certain altitudes. Keep in mind that if a dragon doesn’t fly extensively while young and developing muscles, those muscles will be weak, and restrict the dragon’s ability for its whole life. Imaging a healthy human who always used a wheelchair instead of walking until they were 18. They wouldn’t be able to walk without serious physical therapy, and would always have more difficulty than someone who has walked since infancy.

Is everyone equal? Perhaps look into restricted airspace for human use craft, which are far more likely to crash than the dragons. If dragons want to fly in these restricted corridors, they might need to show they can avoid collisions with the less flexible aircraft to get official permission, or it might be more like a kid learning to cross the road safely, where it is basically a judgment call, and learning the rules as to how to recognize a legal and/or safe crossing point. But airspace basically belongs to the dragons, not the humans.

Are the dragons in charge? Either no humans fly, or they are extremely limited, and only allowed to fly limited, undesirable routes where they aren’t in the way of the dragons. Maybe only at times when most dragons are asleep. Although if your dragons use human-made aircraft for long-distance flights, who knows what might happen.

How would human aviation have been affected? If they need to defer to dragons, they may use blimps and hot air balloons more than fixed wing, and aircraft speeds would be restricted. Also, if dragons rule the sky, maneuverability might be prized over speed and carrying capacity because if the dragons say no to anything likely to kill them, then big, fast airplanes that need a huge turning radius are less likely to be developed.

Answer 6

Because this answer made me think about regulations for intelligent dragons:

Why regulate their flying at all? They are naturally flying creatures, so they should naturally be able to avoid crashing into things and each other. If they agree to please not land on human houses that cannot hold their weight (a house breaking under a dragon sounds unsafe for a dragon, too, anyway), and not land on a busy street because they obstruct traffic, I don't see much reason for regulation.
Most rules for air-traffic exists because pilots may be unable to see oncoming planes, or by the time they see them, have no chance of avoiding them. But for dragons, flying even in the most busy of airspaces should be more like walking along a very full sidewalk.

The same way, a piloted, non-sentient dragon would be able to naturally avoid crashign into other dragons... don't see them as airplanes, but more as horses!

Edit/Addendum: Also, a world that has dragons flying around anyway would most likely have a whole more landing-sites than just airports. Small enough dragons would most likely be able to land on the roofs of larger buildings. If the dragon is small enough and can climb, they may have landing-spots and the SIDES of buildings. Also, depending on the intelligence and training of the dragon, they can land, drop off passengers, and fly off somewhere to come back when called.

Answer 7

Supposing your dragons are intelligent, plentiful and long-established, they would have agreed a system of rules and flight corridors long ago, just as humans agree to drive on the right or left. At places where many flight paths meet they would have fixed rules about height and direction, maybe even markers on the ground. High mountain ranges might have a queueing area for getting through passes. On commonly flown long-distance routes they might have stopping areas for sleeping and eating - a herd of sheep for snacks? In dangerous places or stormy weather they might gather and form convoys. Would they migrate seasonally? Would they have weather forecasts? Would little dragons need to get a licence to be allowed to fly high or long-distance?

So anyway, when your puny humans arrive or learn to fly, they would patch into the established dragon infrastructure.