Fairbanks flight opens unmanned aircraft test site

Fairbanks flight opens unmanned aircraft test site

  • By ELWOOD BREHMER
  • Monday, May 5, 2014 10:51pm
  • News

A small and unassuming unmanned aircraft made a short flight Monday in Fairbanks that signified a big step in aviation, Federal Aviation Administration chief Michael Huerta said.

The quad-rotor Aeryon Scout’s flight of less than five minutes at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Large Animal Research Station officially made the Alaska Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration the second operational unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, test site in the country.

“Alaska is positioned to make great contributions to our research of unmanned aircraft,” Huerta said from Anchorage.

The FAA recently approved a two-year certificate of authorization, or COA, for the Unmanned Aircraft Center for Scout flights at the research station.

In late December, the center’s Pan-Pacific UAS Test Range Complex, which also includes sites in Oregon and Hawaii, was sanctioned by the FAA as one of six UAS testing grounds across the country.

“This is absolutely a special day for our program and for our people who have worked so hard to make this happen — make it a reality,” center director Marty Rogers said in Fairbanks. “We have and have had for a long time a very active and science and research unmanned aircraft program with over a decade of successful flight operations across Alaska, the Lower 48, and internationally, but this, the very first flight at any of the UAS test sites is groundbreaking for us because it is a visible and tangible event that moves us collectively one step closer to safe integration of unmanned aircraft into our national airspace.”

The test sites are the result of a 2012 congressional mandate to the FAA to develop operating procedures to meld UAS and traditional aviation by 2015.

Rogers said the center would work with UAF scientists to determine the feasibility of using the Scout and other UAS to do what Huerta called often “tedious” large animal studies in the wild.

While symbolic, Monday’s flight at the Large Animal Research Station was also used to see how musk ox at the station responded to the Scout, Pan-Pacific Range Director Ro Bailey said.

Huerta said the Pan-Pacific Range and other sites would be used in coming years to determine safe flight conditions, proper operator qualifications, support systems and, most importantly, effective “sense and avoid” technology for flying among traditional aircraft.

“I think we need to think about this as an evolutionary process,” he said.

While initial UAS guidelines will likely be implemented in 2015, they will continue to morph as new technologies arise, Huerta said.

UAF Geophysical Institute researchers counted Steller sea lions with an infrared camera affixed to a UAS in the Aleutian Islands for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 2012 — a low-altitude mission that would be dangerous and largely ineffective for a manned aircraft.

Additionally, the UAF crew has used the little fliers to monitor oil spill response drills run by Chevron in at the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon.

The experience of the UAF staff was a “major factor” in selecting the Alaska Center as a test site operator, according to Huerta.

“They came to us with a very tight and well-developed research program that addressed a very broad scope of the research objectives we identified for the program in its entirety,” Huerta said.

That work was done as government research, before the test site program was in place. The FAA is not currently issuing COA’s for commercial UAS operations and the only legal commercial unmanned flight in the country’s history took place last September when ConocoPhillips used a UAS to survey its offshore oil leases in the Chukchi Sea.

Elwood Brehmer can be reached at elwood.brehmer@alaskajournal.com.

More in News

Rep. Justin Ruffridge, a Soldotna Republican who co-chairs the House Education Committee, speaks in favor overriding a veto of Senate Bill 140 during floor debate of a joint session of the Alaska State Legislature on Monday. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire)
By 1 vote, lawmakers sustain Dunleavy veto of education bill

The bipartisan bill included $680 increase to per-student funding

The Sterling Highway crosses the Kenai River near the Russian River Campground on March 15, 2020, near Cooper Landing, Alaska. (Jeff Helminiak/Peninsula Clarion)
Russian River Campground closed for construction

The campground is expected to reopen on June 2

A man fishes in the Kenai River on July 16, 2018, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Peninsula Clarion/file)
Fish and Game announces series of closures and restrictions for king salmon fisheries

Cook Inlet king salmon stocks are experiencing a prolonged period of poor productivity, the department said

Montessori materials sit on shelves in a classroom at Soldotna Montessori Charter School on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2022 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Education debate draws state attention to peninsula charter schools

Dunleavy would like to see a shift of authority over charter school approvals from local school districts to the state

The Nikiski Senior Center stands under sunlight in Nikiski, Alaska, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Support available for community caregivers

Nikiski Senior Center hosts relaunched Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program

Flags flank the entrance to Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s office on Thursday, March 14, 2024, in Juneau, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Dunleavy vetoes bipartisan education bill

Senate Bill 140 passed the House by a vote of 38-2 and the Senate by a vote of 18-1 last month

The Alaska State Capitol on Friday, March 1, 2024, in Juneau, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
House passes bill altering wording of sex crimes against children

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer

Ben Meyer and Brandon Drzazgowski present to the Soldotna and Kenai Chambers of Commerce at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex in Soldotna, Alaska, on Wednesday, March 13, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai Watershed Forum gives update on streambank restoration

The watershed forum and other organizations are working to repair habitat and mitigate erosion

The entrance to the Kenai Police Department, as seen in Kenai, Alaska, on April 1, 2020. (Photo by Brian Mazurek/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai resident arrested on charges of arson

Kenai Police and Kenai Fire Department responded to a structure fire near Mountain View Elementary

Most Read