U.S: “State of Oklahoma Launches First Investment in AAM Infrastructure”

The Okla­homa Depart­ment of Aero­space and Aero­nau­tics (ODAA) has com­plet­ed the selec­tion process and exe­cut­ed a con­tract for the state’s first invest­ment in “an air­space man­age­ment sys­tem and auto­mat­ic detect-and-avoid solu­tion to sup­port both drone flights and the rapid­ly emerg­ing Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) indus­try,” reports a press release. A local com­pa­ny, Vig­i­lant Aero­space, is to deploy this sys­tem on behalf of the Okla­homa Space indus­try Devel­op­ment Author­i­ty (OSIDA).

The selec­tion seeks to devel­op the state as “a nation­al prov­ing ground for both civil­ian and mil­i­tary drones and to pave the way for AAM oper­a­tions like elec­tric ver­ti­cal take­off air taxis and autonomous car­go air­craft,” says the release.

Under a mul­ti-year con­tract, Vig­i­lant is to utilise the first FlightHo­ri­zon sys­tem at the Okla­homa Air & Space Port at Clin­ton-Sher­man Air­port in col­lab­o­ra­tion with OSIDA, which oper­ates one of only 14 FAA-licensed space­ports in the U.S. 

The project includes inte­gra­tion and man­age­ment of mul­ti­ple mobile air traf­fic sur­veil­lance radars and pro­vides remote mon­i­tor­ing and Uncrewed Traf­fic Man­age­ment (UTM) sys­tems.

FlightHo­ri­zon Sys­tem

Grayson Ardies, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of ODAA, com­ment­ed, “This invest­ment is one of sev­er­al ini­tia­tives that demon­strate the state of Oklahoma’s com­mit­ment to being a nation­al leader on the cut­ting edge of avi­a­tion indus­try tech­nol­o­gy. The tra­di­tion­al aero­space and defence indus­try plays a crit­i­cal role in the State’s econ­o­my, and we are grate­ful for the oppor­tu­ni­ty to bring this new seg­ment of the indus­try to ensure our state stays at the fore­front of the nation­al con­ver­sa­tion to devel­op autonomous avi­a­tion sys­tems.”

Through FlightHo­ri­zon, the state “will have the abil­i­ty to mon­i­tor air­space and track both coop­er­a­tive and non-coop­er­a­tive air­craft, replac­ing visu­al observers with elec­tron­ic observers,” explains the release. “When imple­ment­ed, the sys­tem elim­i­nates the need for a chase plane for long-range beyond visu­al line-of-sight (BVLOS) flight of uncrewed air­craft sys­tems (UAS), includ­ing high-speed, high-alti­tude flights.”

Fund­ing is pro­vid­ed by the Okla­homa Leg­is­la­ture as a part of the ‘Pre­serv­ing Rur­al Eco­nom­ic Pros­per­i­ty’ (PREP) fund ini­tia­tive with the aim to invest in UAS and AAM infra­struc­ture and pre­pare OSIDA and oth­er enti­ties across the state for the inte­gra­tion of such tech­nolo­gies. 

Craig Smith, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of OSIDA, remarked, “Our part­ner­ship with Vig­i­lant Aero­space under­scores a com­mit­ment to expand the state’s capa­bil­i­ties, while sup­port­ing the mis­sions of cur­rent and future cus­tomers.”

He con­tin­ued, “Through this ini­tia­tive, we are build­ing the infra­struc­ture that will enable the safe and effi­cient oper­a­tion of autonomous air­craft, cre­at­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties for inno­va­tion, job growth, and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment.”

Vig­i­lan­t’s Detect Advanced Radar And Remote Sens­ing Tech­nolo­gies for BVLOS

The project at the Okla­homa Air & Space Port locat­ed near Burns Flat in west­ern Okla­homa, will sup­port ODAA’s statewide goal of devel­op­ing advanced autonomous air­craft oper­a­tions and BVLOS flight test­ing of next-gen­er­a­tion mil­i­tary and car­go UAS in the U.S Nation­al Air­space Sys­tem.

As the sys­tem is mobile and can be rede­ployed through­out the state, it is to serve as a launch­pad to pio­neer and estab­lish pro­ce­dures for AAM oper­a­tions at many poten­tial locations.Kraettli Epper­son, CEO of Vig­i­lant Aero­space, added, “Choos­ing a flex­i­ble, scal­able solu­tion that can sup­port a wide range of mil­i­tary and com­mer­cial drone flights, as well as invest­ing in the emerg­ing AAM indus­try, Okla­homa is show­ing the nation a path for­ward.”

The core of the sys­tem is a scal­able cloud-based soft­ware inte­grat­ed with mul­ti­ple air traf­fic sur­veil­lance radars man­u­fac­tured by project part­ner,  DeTect Inc. 

The release con­cludes, “In addi­tion to mobile radar trail­ers, FlightHo­ri­zon also uses data from radars, air­craft transpon­ders, drone teleme­try, Remote ID drone bea­cons and online FAA data to pro­vide a com­pre­hen­sive pic­ture of the air­space to remote pilots and air­space man­agers.”

For more infor­ma­tion

https://oklahoma.gov/aerospace/about.html

https://vigilantaerospace.com/

https://spaceport.ok.gov/

https://detect-inc.com/

(Top image: Okla­homa Air & Space Port)

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