The country’s latest drone research site is now up and running, regulators said Friday, on a Texas campus where researchers will explore operational issues at a time when commercial use of drones seems poised for expansion.
The site, the fourth of six that will be dedicated to studying and testing unmanned drones, is at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Researchers will explore airworthiness standards, safety issues and detect-and-avoid technologies in an effort to gauge how drones can be integrated into U.S. airspace.
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The drones will be used for projects such as “preservation and restoration of the ocean and ocean wetlands along the Padre Island National Seashore; research in advance of approaching tropical depressions; support to law enforcement in the Padre Island National Seashore; and providing metrics and lessons learned from these flights to the FAA,” the FAA said.
The FAA has granted the campus a two-year license to use an RS-16 drone, which weighs about 85 pounds and has a wingspan of almost 13 ft.
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