What’s involved in performing validation and testing of BVLOS and Safety protocols?

For that question, we turn to Andy Thurling, Chief Technology Officer of the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance.  NUAIR, as its commonly known, is a New York-based nonprofit with a mission to safely integrate uncrewed aircraft systems into the national airspace, enabling scalable, economically viable commercial drone operations.  NUAIR manages operations of the FAA-designated New York UAS Test Site at Griffiss International Airport, Rome, NY on behalf of Oneida County and is responsible for the advancement of New York’s 50-mile UAS Corridor between Rome and Syracuse, NY.

Andy leads technical research on current and future UAS technologies.  He also evaluates potential paths to implementation, industry standards for approval by regulators, and test techniques to verify compliance. Prior to NUAIR, Andy was Director of Product Safety and Mission Assurance at AeroVironment where he led airworthiness, certification, and airspace access strategic efforts.

In this edition of the Drone Radio Show, Andy talks about NUAIR, the current efforts in testing BVLOS protecols, and validation of safety standards for UAS systems.  We also talk about this year’s Xponential 2022 conference in Orlando and why we should all attend.