NASA Completes First UAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight Flights

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On Wednesday, NASA successfully completed its first beyond visual line-of-sight flights at NASA’s Ames Research Center at the Reno-Stead Airport in Reno, Nevada.

Using four unmanned systems, each UAS operated on NASA’s UAS traffic management research platform.

The test highlighted the UTM’s Technical Capability Level 2 (TCL2), which is responsible for keeping UAS alert of other manned and unmanned systems in the airspace. Operators of the UAS also gained access to information including their UAS location, and potential hazards and conflicts in the proximity of their aircraft.

“The NASA UTM program is groundbreaking and we are excited to be part of the effort,” said Mark Barker, director of business development at Nevada Institute of Autonomous Systems (NIAS), via a NASA press release. “NASA, NIAS and all the Nevada Teammates are truly advancing the unmanned systems industry.”

NASA will conduct a test of the UTM’s Technical Capability Level Three in January of 2018. That test will look into the UTM’s ability to track and manage cooperative and uncooperative manned and unmanned operations over moderately populated areas. Level Four testing, which will address UAS used for newsgathering and package delivery in higher-density urban areas, is scheduled for 2019.

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