The Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, a coalition of New York and Massachusetts aerospace and academic institutions, has signed a multi-year collaboration agreement with Thales to integrate unmanned aircraft systems into traditional, controlled airspace and support its ability to conduct operations at its New York UAS test site’s 50-mile UAS traffic management corridor.
Thales is working with NUAIR at the Griffiss test site to examine how advancement in UTM could provide a glimpse into future airspace automation capabilities. Thales will do this by integrating the entire airspace situation into its software solution for NUAIR to enable controllers to track unmanned flights and keep operators a safe distance from manned aviation.
This agreement follows the recent notice by the FAA that Thales was named as a Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability approved partner to help directly support UAS integration into the NAS.
Thales established a presence in Central New York at Syracuse University in 2017 as part of a broader UTM initiative. “This partnership helps advance the critical tools needed for beyond visual line of site testing; these are capabilities not found at any other test site in the nation,” said Major General Marke F. “Hoot” Gibson (ret), chief executive officer of the NUAIR Alliance.
(Image: Frank Matus Director Digital Aviation Market Development-Americas Thales USA pictured Left with Major General (Ret.) Marke “Hoot” Gibson NUAIR CEO on Right. (C) NUAIR)
