Federal officials are testing the government’s ability to identify gyrocopters and other small aircraft over Washington, D.C., nearly three years after a Florida mailman flew undetected past the White House before landing his 350-pound rotorcraft at the U.S. Capitol.
The Air Force will fly a gyrocopter above the capital area at between 500 and 2,500 feet off the ground, and will fly Cessna and Sky Arrow aircraft between 500 and 8,000 feet above the ground, according to a Tuesday press release.
“Using Cessna, Sky Arrow and Gyrocopter aircraft, a variety of flight patterns will be flown five to nine times per week,” the U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command’s public affairs office said in the release.
The Air Force flights are “intended to assist in calibration of systems and equipment, and will serve to refine and improve the ability to respond to unknown and potentially threatening aircraft,” the release said.
“To ensure maximum benefit is gained from this extended period of activity, flights will be conducted during both daytime and nighttime hours,” the release said. “These flights may be visible to people in the National Capitol Region.”
The undetected flight of mailman Douglas Hughes in April 2015 badly embarrassed federal officials. Hughes sought to raise attention for campaign finance reform, and packed his 10-gallon gyrocopter with letters for members of Congress before flying at about 350 to 500 feet off the ground from Gettysburg, Pa.
Radar didn’t detect Hughes, and he also made it past the high-tech JLENS aerial detection system, a blimp-based early warning tool into which authorities had invested $2.7 billion. The JLENS system was “not operational” that day, a NORAD official told Congress.
It’s unclear if NORAD intends to test the JLENS system with upcoming flights in the area.
Hughes told the Washington Examiner he believes “things got tightened up a lot after my flight.”
“If a person was to try an unannounced flight today, I wouldn’t bet on their odds of making it,” he said. “What my flight did is it forced NORAD and the FAA to deliver the systems they had previously promised and not delivered.”
Hughes was sentenced to 120 days in jail after pleading guilty to a felony charge of flying without a license. He’s now working on a book and toying with a 50-state gyrocopter tour in support of campaign finance reform.
A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration, with which the Air Force said it’s coordinating, referred questions to the military, a spokeswoman for which could not immediately supply additional information.
The testing window will run through the end of March, according to the Tuesday release. An earlier window intended to run from October-January was pushed back due to bad weather and scheduling conflicts.
