Innovation and Opportunities Abound for Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Tremendous opportunities exist for innovation and research with unmanned aircraft systems and the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Lone Star UAS Center (LSUASC) of Excellence and Innovation is ready to help businesses develop those.

In a public meeting held Friday, on the A&M-CC campus, LSUASC officials and representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration gave an update and answered questions to a crowd of about 170 people.

The event was livestreamed online and a recording is available online at lsuasc.tamucc.edu.

The Lone Star UAS Center is one of only six UAS test sites selected by the Federal Aviation Administration to guide research programs that will help the FAA safely integrate UAS into the national airspace.

Unmanned aircraft systems – sometimes called drones or remotely piloted vehicles – are expected to change the way data is gathered, making it cheaper, easier and faster than using an airplane or satellite imagery. UAS uses include providing images to emergency management officials after disasters or extreme weather and monitoring pipelines, coastlines and agricultural and livestock fields.

The meeting covered issues of potential UAS uses, innovation and opportunities at the Lone Star UAS Center, and the overall goal of safely integrating UAS into our skies.

Attendees were encouraged to join the discussion, ask questions and gain a better understanding of UAS, their potential uses and the research, development and testing happening at the University’s Lone Star UAS Center. The group also took questions via Twitter with #AskLSUASC.

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Kim Stevens

Kim Stevens is the publisher of State Aviation Journal, which he founded in 2009. A longtime commercial-rated pilot, he was introduced to state aviation in 1992 as Director of the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics, later serving as Deputy Division Director for the Arizona Department of Transportation's Aeronautics Division. From 2013 to 2018, he was Director of Communications and Operations for the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) in Washington, D.C. Relocating to North Carolina, Kim worked for the Raleigh-Durham International Airport for two years and now concentrates solely on the Journal. Prior to his aviation career, Kim spent a decade in the newspaper and magazine business.