Logos Technologies conducts first UAS test flight at NY airport

The Federal Aviation Administration’s designated test site in New York this week conducted a test flight using a Logos Technologies unmanned aerial system.  

The Griffiss International Airport and the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance (NUAIR Alliance) reached an important milestone with the experimental test flight of the Logos unmanned aerial vehicle.

“We are excited about being the first to fly a UAS at the Griffiss FAA test site,” said Wade Pulliam, director of advanced concepts at Logos Technologies. “Today’s flight tests were a great success and allowed us to collect valuable data that will be critical to our development of parafoil systems for military and commercial applications.”

The UAV flown is a powered parafoil system, which combines a fabric wing—essentially a parachute—with an aircraft fuselage. In addition to the parafoil system’s ability to carry significant loads for its weight class, it also provides increased safety over traditional UAVs. The UAV is a test bed designed to further develop Logos’ flight control approach for inexpensively delivering supplies to dispersed units.

"Through these first successful operational flights, the NUAIR Alliance and its partners have met a significant mandate for this test site," said Larry Brinker, executive director of the NUAIR Alliance. "This is an exciting step into the future of aviation and the deployment of unmanned aircraft systems."

The experimental flights at the FAA’s UAS test sites are intended assist with the operation and integration of UAS in class D airspace. Developing UAS within approved airspace helps develop future applications, including precision agriculture, pipeline and power line monitoring, environmental monitoring, and disaster and humanitarian relief support.

The NUAIR Alliance is a consortium of industry leaders and academic institutions throughout New York, Massachusetts and Michigan. It’s led by the CenterState Corp. for Economic Opportunity in New York and MassDevelopment in Massachusetts.

Organizations partnering with Griffiss International Airport and NUAIR include Saab Sensis, SRC, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Colleges and universities include Rochester Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts institutions, Syracuse University, Clarkson University and Northeastern University, among others.