A milestone in operating unmanned aircraft in civil airspace was set last week with the arrival at Oshkosh of a Predator B flown by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (USCBP).

The Predator was flown to Wittman Field, the site of the EAA AirVenture annual air show, from its base in Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., marking the first time a UAV has flown to a commercial airport for a non-military air show. The aircraft was controlled from Grand Forks until within 50 miles of Oshkosh, when it was handed over to the local control station manned by air interdiction agent Kevin Krogh. He piloted the Predator the length of Lake Winnebago and brought it in to land on Runway 18.

 The Predator B on show at Oshkosh.

“This is a historic event,” said USCBP spokesman Juan Munoz-Torres. “It’s the first time an unmanned aircraft has been flown like this to a non-military air show outside the restricted airspace in which they are operated on a daily basis.” The flight required a special certificate of authorization from the FAA “and those are usually very difficult to obtain,” he said.

The Predator cruised between 20,000-29,000 ft. compared to its usual operating altitude of 19,000 ft., and was accompanied for the flight by a USCBP Citation 550 chase plane. The route avoided overflying congested areas, and the approach to landing at Oshkosh was made from the east over Lake Winnebago to minimize time over population below.

The USCBP has six Predator Bs. Two are operated over the Canadian border from Grand Forks, and three patrol the Southwest border from Libby Army Airfield in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The sixth is currently being modified by General Atomics for maritime operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

Munoz-Torres said the Predators operate away from those two bases only under “exceptional” circumstances. The last time was to help FEMA assess hurricane damage last year, when one operated out of Corpus Christie naval air base in Texas.
The USCBP is a longtime exhibitor at AirVenture, but this is the first time it has brought a UAV. “Doing so will help the general aviation public better understand this technology and make them more aware of our types of operation,” he said.

Michael Kostelnik, USCBP assistant commissioner for air and marine, will give a talk later in the week to describe the service’s unmanned aircraft operations.

Interestingly enough Krogh, the pilot who made the landing at Oshkosh, is an EAA member. He had planned to attend AirVenture anyway this year with his Piper PA-20 but found himself on a working holiday instead.