Oklahoma State University is flying away from the competition when it comes to unmanned aircraft systems. After the Federal Aviation Administration recently chose six test sites across the United States to begin research into UAS, some questioned why Oklahoma was not on the test site list. Dr. Jamey Jacob, a professor of aerospace engineering at OSU, said he was not surprised by the decision.
“All of the test sites have to be self-funded — meaning the FAA is not providing any money to operate the test sites,” Jacob said. “Most of the other sites had significant support from the state.”
Jacob said the loss of the bid will not affect the university’s programme. Oklahoma State has been a leader in UAS education and has taken another step in the advancement of UAS. – OSU students recently designed two unmanned aircraft. One of the two vehicles is called MARIA — which stands for Mesoscale Analysis and Research Investigation Aircraft. According to OSU’s website, MARIA is designed to be flown into super cells of emerging thunderstorms to better understand the storms. Jacob said the aircraft could gather data that could be of immediate use. The aircraft could help predict future patterns of storms and gain important meteorological evidence that could change how scientists track storms.
This isn’t the first UAS OSU students have designed. In 2008, a group of aerospace engineering students set world records in aviation for unmanned flight.
Their plane — Pterosoar-B — broke endurance and distance records in the F8-S category.
Oklahoma State’s UAS graduate programme officially started in 2011. Although the University of North Dakota offered the first bachelor’s degree in UAS, OSU has the only graduate programme that teaches engineering of UAS.
“There are a lot of other UAS programmes out there that are focused on piloting,” Jacob said. “This specifically focuses on training students to design, build and operate unmanned aircraft.”
As the university focuses on development and advancement in UAS, Jacob said rules and guidelines for public uses of UAS are not set.
“That’s still up to the FAA,” Jacob said. “Their current timeline is to try to have some rules in place by 2015.”
The first rules for use of UAS would most likely address agricultural, oil, and gas applications, but even if rules are put in place for UAS use in the next year, Jacob said commercial use is not quite as close.
“We are a long way from that,” Jacob said. “Probably five to 10 years.”
According to the Oklahoma Department of Commerce’s website, aerospace and defence is a key industry in Oklahoma due to the state’s geography, businesses, and education in unmanned aircraft systems.
“We have lots of programs that we are currently working on with UAS — weather and tornado forecasting, search and rescue, and wildfire surveillance,” Jacob said.
Oklahoma State students that choose to pursue the UAS option are given the opportunity to enjoy flight testing at OSU’s UAS airfield in Stillwater and possibly restricted airspace at Fort Sill in southwest Oklahoma.
Source: Stillwater News Press