Arizona is vying to become home to a national test range for unmanned aircraft, as the federal government looks to set aside airspace for development of new, nonmilitary drone technologies.
And Southern Arizona - already home to perhaps the world's busiest drone airport at the U.S. Army's Fort Huachuca - figures prominently in those plans, after a statewide committee concluded that the Benson Airport area is one of a few prime locations for one of the test ranges.
Under the National Defense Authorization Act passed in December, the Federal Aviation Administration must move to integrate unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, into the National Airspace System.
The idea is to create dedicated airspace where unmanned aircraft can be developed for commercial and nonmilitary security uses.
The FAA has until mid-2013 to establish a program to integrate unmanned aircraft into the national airspace at six national test sites. The pending FAA reauthorization bill contains similar language.
Passage of the test-site mandate has set off a flurry of activity by at least 10 states that see a test site as a boost to local technology and economic development.
The good news is, Arizona hasn't been sitting on its hands.
The state Aerospace and Defense Commission has been studying the issue since the test-site requirements came out in earlier versions of the FAA budget bill last spring.
The commission set up an advisory committee that studied the issue and came out with a report in December.
The report concludes that Arizona is a strong contender for a UAS test site, citing:
• Fort Huachuca's status as a major UAS training center.
• Other military training such as a Marine Corps UAS squadron based in Yuma.
• UAS research and development by companies including Raytheon Missile Systems, BAE Systems, Boeing Co. - which makes its Hummingbird rotorcraft UAS in Mesa - and smaller firms.
• Academic research support including wind-tunnel and other test facilities at the University of Arizona, a UAS minor program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, and an aerospace-defense research collaboration at Arizona State University.
At Fort Huachuca, UAS flights comprise about a quarter of the base's 140,000 takeoffs and landings annually, making it the "busiest airfield in the world" for both UAS and combined UAS-manned flights, the report said, noting that the base has been handling UAS operations for nearly three decades.
"We like to say, 'We were UAS before UAS was cool,' " said Robin Sobotta, chair of Embry-Riddle's aviation business program and chairwoman of the UAS advisory committee.
After surveying Arizona airports and other stakeholders, the committee identified three prime locations for a UAS test range, including two in "non-exclusionary," or unrestricted, airspace.
The highest-scoring site is at the Benson Airport, identified as San Pedro North, with airspace stretching northeast to the eastern slopes of the Santa Catalina Mountains.
The second-ranking site is around the Seligman airport, about 60 miles west of Flagstaff, the report said.
The Benson Airport already has been approved by the FAA to operate one type of UAS, the Army's Shadow 200, under an experimental airworthiness certificate.
The committee also identified a third site, in exclusionary airspace at the edge of the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground. The Yuma site has served as a test site for UAS technology developed by Tucson-based Raytheon Missile Systems, including its bat-winged "Killer Bee."
A smaller local UAS developer said having a UAS test range near Tucson would help his company and other local UAS developers, including Raytheon and BAE Systems, keep test costs down.
With all the UAS activity on the border, setting up a test range here would make sense, said Keith Brock, co-owner of Tucson-based Brock Technologies. Brock recently converted five manned ultra-light aircraft to remote-control craft to help the Border Patrol learn how to bring down smugglers' ultralights.
"We look forward to the new businesses and technologies, because all that's going to do is increase our business and push us to do more work and do it better," Brock said.
Embry-Riddle's Sobotta cited a 2010 report by the Congressional Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Caucus estimating that opening domestic airspace to civil UAV operations could lead to the creation of more than 23,000 jobs over 15 years.
"The more facilities you have in your state, the better chance we have to get some of those jobs," Sobotta said.
View the report
Bank Robbery; Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution - Armed
Robbery; Theft From Interstate Shipment
