ASSURE Kickoff Summit Launches Next Chapter in UAS Research

June 24, 2015

A Mississippi State-led consortium and the Federal Aviation Administration are moving forward with groundbreaking work to integrate unmanned aircraft into the national airspace after a successful kickoff summit in the nation's capital.

In May, the FAA announced that ASSURE will operate the new National Center of Excellence for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. Last week's meeting in Washington, D.C., brought together all 15 core university members of the coalition to meet with agency officials.

Discussions in Washington during the kickoff conference focused on key UAS research areas, including detection and avoidance, flying beyond visual line of sight, airworthiness standards, airborne and ground impact studies, and maintenance certification, among others.

The ASSURE team and the FAA will meet quarterly. Mississippi State will host the next gathering in the fall. More than 100 of the world's leading UAS, aerospace and related companies and manufacturers are members of ASSURE.

The FAA expects the center of excellence will be able to begin research by September this year, and be fully operational and engaged in a robust research agenda by January 2016.

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