In an effort to ensure the safe and efficient operations of UAS, NASA’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Traffic Management (UTM) project has selected the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation (LSUASC) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi to test UAS traffic management. Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi is one of just two test sites selected in the nation for this testing. “This series of tests is a critical step in enabling the safe integration of unmanned aircraft systems within an urban environment,” says Mike Sanders, acting executive director of the Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation.

According to the Midland Daily News, Mid Michigan College will soon begin offering professional UAS users, as well as hobbyists, the opportunity to learn more about UAS and their impact on businesses. Mid Michigan College has a Drone Training program, which is designed to address a number of areas, including teaching UAS-piloting skills, identifying potential uses and industry applications for the technology, and ultimately preparing students to pass the remote pilot knowledge test needed to obtain a Remote Pilot Certificate from the FAA to legally operate the systems under the FAA's small UAS Rule. Mid Michigan College adjunct faculty member Robert Giuliani will teach the courses.

Rutherford County, Tennessee has received an FAA waiver to conduct commercial UAS operations over people, becoming the first and only county government in the U.S. with this capability.  The county will utilize Vantage Robotics’ Snap UAS for these operations in both emergency and non-emergency situations.  “We’re excited at Vantage, both to be continuing to pave new ground for safe and legal UAV use near people as well to see Snap contributing to public safety,” Vantage says.  This landmark FAA waiver comes a little over a year after the FAA granted CNN a “first-of-its-kind Part 107 waiver” that allows the media organization to fly a small UAS over people. Like Rutherford County, CNN also utilized the Snap UAS. 

Insitu has successfully completed the first interim Type Certification Board Meeting (TCBM) in support of the ScanEagle3 FAA type certification program. Key FAA teams including Aircraft Certification (AIR), Aircraft Flight Status (AFS), Air Traffic Organization (ATO), and Aircraft Unmanned Systems (AUS) recently came together at Insitu’s Bingen, Washington headquarters for the TCBM, which was a first for the group of FAA teams. The FAA teams participated in an overview of Insitu’s Project Plan for Certification. During this overview, they examined Insitu’s “Detect and Avoid” (DAA) capability planning, along with its Safety Management System and proprietary model–based engineering.