In 1995, the Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, NY closed down.  Eleven years later operations from the nearby Oneida County Airport were transferred over to Griffiss at which point it became the Griffiss International Airport, a small public airport with only one runway.  In 2012 about an hour away in Syracuse, NY NUAIR was established by a group of dedicated aviation professionals to begin researching and testing drone capabilities.  In 2013 the FAA designated Griffiss International Airport as an official UAS test site to be managed by NUAIR.  This test site is one of seven in the United States, but has some unique features.

NUAIR is run by a former pilots who each have decades of aviation experience.  Their job is to oversee any testing of drones and to encourage the continued advancement of drone technology.  NUAIR’s motto is “making future skies safer” and they do this through rigorous flight tests.  As stated on their website, since 2015 they have accumulated “Over 2,500 UAS test flights, using small, medium and large UAS, in five states, and in two Class D airspace locations, equating to over 650 total flight hours.”  What makes NUAIR’s testing site unique is that they have built a 50mile long secure, open air space to test UAVs.

The drone corridor runs from Griffiss Airport in Rome to NUAIR’s headquarters in Syracuse.  The primary purpose of this corridor is to test drones BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line Of Site), which is becoming a growing concern for those invested in the drone industry.  This test site consists “of a highly instrumented UAS test ecosystem with functionality that includes: Tracking of cooperating & non-cooperating targets, USS support, Simulation Capabilities, Secure Data Collection, and more.  The systems and technologies at the NY UAS Test Site lay the foundation for testing and certification of UAS detect-and-avoid systems to meet future UAS standards and support safe UAS integration into the national airspace system.”  Along the corridor is a network of stationary and mobile radar systems that thoroughly track a drone flying through the test corridor which is open to the government, private companies, and students looking to test drone capabilities.

The goal is to use this sectioned off area of airspace to find a way of integrating UAV is regulated airspace safely.  As more and more companies are striving to use drones for means of product distribution, a need to find a way of safely flying drones BVLO is key.  The FAA has tasked NUAIR with developing a DAA (Detect And Avoid) system.  “The New York UAS Test Site at Griffiss International Airport is evaluating next-generation UAS ground-based detect and avoid (GBDAA) systems capable of enabling beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations in airport terminal areas and in transition airspace.”

Besides managing the test site at Griffiss and the connecting UAS Traffic Management corridor, NUAIR also provides consulting services to those in the drone industry.  They provide organizations with a way to implement drone services into their existing framework that is cost effective, safe, and within regulation standards.  They are also helping shape National UAS Standardized Testing And Rating (NUSTAR), a way of maintaining drone regulations for all parties involved.  “In building NUSTAR, we expect to develop means of compliance with evolving standards and provide an environment for testing and verification that industry leaders will seek out for standards verification.”

As NUAIR’s CEO Mike Hertzendorf, a former Special Operations Aviator for the US Army, said of the test site “It’s always going to be evolving.”  Drone technology and demands are always progressing.  That is why having UAS test sites like the one at Griffiss are critical in the advancement of the impact drones will have on our lives.  The team at NUAIR hope that their facility will encourage new innovations and solutions for the use of drones.