FAA Awards Indiana State University 2 COAs, Includes Controlled Airspace
An unmanned aerial vehicle is flown inside an Indiana State University College of Technology classroom in February. The FAA granted the university authorization to operate unmanned vehicles at Terre Haute International Airport and the Army National Guard Muscatatuck Urban Training Center. Photo: Indiana State University.
Indiana State University became the first higher education institution in the state to receive approval to fly unmanned aircraft systems.
The university received two certificates of authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly at Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field and the Indiana National Guard’s Muscatatuck Urban Training Center. The COA to fly at Terre Haute is one of the only in the country for controlled airspace.
“Being in the forefront of the unmanned systems integration is tremendous opportunity for the Terre Haute International Airport and surrounding community,” says Jeff Hauser, Terre Haute Airport executive director. “Unmanned systems have great potential to be beneficial in sectors such as agriculture, law enforcement, disaster response operations and an endless number of other applications.”
Indiana State can now train students for pilot and management positions in the UAS industry.
“It will provide students with significant research and training to prepare them for the expanding employment opportunities in this field,” says university President Dan Bradley.
The university believes the authorization will pave the way for research and development of the “Internet of things,” a network of objects that use software, sensors and connectivity to operate in concert with other objects over the Internet.
According to Dick Baker, founding director of ISU’s unmanned systems program, the recent approval “illustrates the university’s vision in understanding the need for partnerships in technology that will ultimately affect every home, student and business, [and] our cities, state and nation in the associated development of the technology for goods and services and how they are delivered.”
Essential for this research is the development of sensor technology that is vital to unmanned aviation.
The university’s ability to fly UAS will “drive research into ubiquitous uses of sensors that represent an exciting future for the peaceful use of unmanned system technologies,” says Bob English, dean of Indiana State’s College of Technology.
These sensors will find their way into all domains of autonomous systems and into the fields of medicine, precision agriculture, search and rescue, architecture and the media, according to Don Bonte, director of ISU’s Center for Unmanned Systems and Human Capital Development.
“This will encourage interdisciplinary cooperation and research, create new educational and training partnerships between universities and expand existing ones, and provide new opportunities for business supplying products to autonomous industries,” says Bonte.
