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Testing Drones At NMSU Las Cruces

  The SenseFly eBee unmanned aircraft system recently completed an airworthiness assessment, an Federal Aviation Administration-accepted public aircraft process, at the New Mexico State University Physical Science Laboratory’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Test Center. 

The eBee is now being flown under the NMSU FAA Certificate of Authorization to develop safety of flight procedures for mapping extractive industry projects such as open pit mining and oil and gas operations. 

The NMSU Flight Test Center is performing research with NewFields Aviation & Robotics Services to develop procedures enabling unmanned aircraft systems to collect and provide high-resolution remote sensing data to enhance the safe and efficient operation within the extractive industry sector. 

The SenseFly eBee unmanned aircraft system, which has both extensive field flight experience in Europe and with U.S. public entities for disaster relief and infrastructure operations, is the UAS selected by NewFields Aviation & Robotics Services. 

“This research effort will enable the FAA to obtain and assess the data collected during these flights to establish validated procedures for the safe use of UAS for extractive industry applications,” said Dennis Zaklan, deputy director of the NMSU Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Test Center.