Tillamook Bussiness to test Drones
Near Space Corporation in Tillamook is part of one of the six teams selected nationwide to test unmanned aerial systems – often nicknamed “drones” – for the Federal Aviation Administration.
It’s a three-year research project that began just this month, said Eric Simpkins, Near Space’s manager of business development.
The six teams were selected from 25 applicants. In the Pacific Northwest region, Alaska, Oregon and Hawaii are representing the only multistate team, with the University of Alaska spearheading those efforts.
The Northwest team includes 13 different test sites, three of them in Oregon – Near Space in Tillamook, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Madras and the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton.
“We’ll be conducting research in these three test ranges,” said Simpkins.
And don’t call their products drones, he added.
“Drones were used in WWII, usually towed behind another aircraft for target practice,” said Simpkins. “Ours are strictly used for research and to lead to the safe integration of these unmanned systems into the national airspace.”
They could be anything from small “quad copters” to larger airplanes – each a different research platform for carrying out different activities.
“They’re not mindless killer machines,” emphasized Tim Lachenmeier, president of Near Space Corporation. “They’re not weaponized or anything.”
They’re also not spying on people. “We’re not going to be looking in people’s houses,” declared Simpkins.
Each test site must have a privacy policy that is reviewed annually. While the participants don’t yet know precisely where they will be testing the unmanned craft, “The FAA will direct us to fly in remote, unpopulated areas,” said Simpkins.
The testing regionally will take place above the Pacific Ocean and over the Cascade Mountains, he added, where population and air traffic are minimal.
Simpkins said the goal is to gather data on how to safely operate these systems, to develop proper procedures, and eventually to integrate them into the national air system.
Each team of test sites was chosen for its geographical diversity, said Lachenmeier. The other five teams are at sites in Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Texas and Virginia
“They were chosen based on their location, the strength of the staff in the different facilities and what research activities were already ongoing,” he said.
Lachenmeier said Near Space would be continuing the company’s focus on high-altitude balloons, as well as integrating the testing of the unmanned systems along the Pacific Coast and surrounding areas.
In the Northwest region, he said, those systems might assist marine research, search-and-rescue missions, emergency response, fighting wildfires and a variety of other tasks.
“Today, the Forest Service will send manned aircraft over a fire to find hot spots and the best way to combat [the fire] with the least amount of cost and expense,” Simpkins said. “But that’s dangerous territory.”
Pilots can find it difficult to identify the precise borders of the wildfire, he said, whereas unmanned systems can fly day or night using inferred technology to track the fire and direct on-the-ground resources, all without putting a pilot in harm’s way.
“The main goal is to learn the subtleties of operating these systems so they can be more widely deployed throughout the U.S.,” said Simpkins.
By January 2017, the FAA will have reviewed the research data compiled by the six teams to determine if these systems can be flown safely.
“While we’re the ones conducting the research, we’re operating under the rules and regulations of the FAA,” said Simpkins. “And at the end of the research period, the FFA will determine what the new rules are for operating these systems on a national level.”
