Global airspace group headed to NY for UAS UTM work

An unmanned traffic management testing (UTM) agreement will help Thales Group expand its work in upstate New York. Through an agreement with NASA, the global air traffic management firm Thales, will work with officials at NASA and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s UAS test site in Rome, N.Y., to further develop UTM protocols for flights under 400 feet.

Thales is already working at Griffiss International Airport with other UAS stakeholders from the region, but the new agreement with NASA will allow it to apply other learnings to UTM systems. Thales is currently supporting the integration and monitoring of the FAA’s System Wide Information Management capabilities.

Alan Pellegrini, CEO for Thales USA, said the agreement will help bring high-technology jobs to New York. “Thales supports technology innovation across New York, including advanced rail signaling, airport security and airline passenger experience capabilities and this agreement enables us to further leverage our strengths in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to advance a UTM concept for NASA,” he said.

Thales considers cybersecurity, big data analysis and artificial intelligence understanding to be a major part of what it can bring to UTM in the U.S.

“Attracting global companies like Thales to the Mohawk Valley was exactly what we envisioned when we sought and secured the FAA Test Site in Rome,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

NASA signed a space act agreement with Thales.

Thales believes it support of UTM will help further the concept so that it may be transferred to the FAA in 2019 for deployment in the national airspace system.