The Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NPUASTS) has begun the\ninitial stages of implementing infrastructure for North Dakota\u2019s statewide\nUnmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) network.\nThe key site location chosen for this initial deployment of the BVLOS network\nis in the surrounding areas of Watford City and Williston, ND, due to the\nproximity of many potential use cases and existing state and local government\ninfrastructure that can be leveraged for this deployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited to begin the first stage of building this\nnetwork in western North Dakota. It is ideally located in the heart of North\nDakota\u2019s oil and gas industry and covers a population center that will directly\nbenefit from the network,\u201d said Nicholas Flom, executive director of NPUASTS.\n\u201cThis means that even the very first stage of the network will be commercially\nviable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
L3Harris Technologies and Thales USA, two leading aviation\ncompanies, have been selected to build out this baseline key site infrastructure.\nThis infrastructure will enable BVLOS flights in McKenzie and Williams counties\n\u2013 with additional locations rolling out after the key site has been validated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a leader in air traffic management, surveillance, and\nmission critical communication technologies, L3Harris is excited to work with\nNorth Dakota to build an aviation-grade solution that integrates UAS into the\nnational airspace system,\u201d said George Kirov, vice president and general\nmanager, Commercial UAS Solutions at L3Harris. \u201cThe technologies we pioneered\nfor beyond-visual-line-of-sight operations will expand the role of UAS for\nNorth Dakota and will help improve air safety, increase efficiency, reduce the\ncost of commercial data acquisition, and support the growth of drone commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe state of North Dakota\u2019s Statewide BVLOS Network is\ntruly the first of its kind,\u201d said Todd Donovan, vice president of air traffic\nmanagement at Thales USA. \u201cThis robust network, that safely and securely\nintegrates UAS into the national airspace, will serve as an enviable model and\nbe the catalyst for broader commercial UAS operations for years to come as it\nrelies on a complete solution that addresses the FAA\u2019s safety risk management\nprocess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Key site implementation is beginning immediately and will\ninclude extensive verification and validation system testing in coordination\nwith the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Ensuring the safety and\nreliability of the network is essential as it will guide future improvements as\nthe network is built out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSystem testing of the network is absolutely necessary for\nsafety, and it will also allow us to perform use-case development flights to\nset the standard requirements for any aircraft seeking to fly on the network,\u201d\nsaid Jim Cieplak, program manager of the statewide network. \u201cConstantly\nchecking for efficacy also means being prudent with the state\u2019s investment. We\nare making sure the very best iteration of this technology is what we\nimplement.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NPUASTS) has begun the initial stages of implementing infrastructure for North Dakota\u2019s statewide Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) network. The key site location chosen for this initial deployment of the BVLOS network is in the surrounding areas of Watford City and Williston, ND, due […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,127],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-dakota","category-unmanned-systems"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16463,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16462\/revisions\/16463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}