New York drone corridor is finally here — all 50 miles of it
Remember that 50-mile drone corridor we told you about last year? The New York drone corridor is finally here and open for business.
New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo this month announced the completion of 50-mile corridor, supported by the state and designed for drone testing, particularly drone traffic management (frequently referred to as UTM).
But don’t expect to see the corridor running through Times Square. It covers pretty rural areas, running from Central New York to the Mohawk Valley.
And of course, this isn’t your average highway. Unlike traditional highways made of concrete, the 50-mile, New York drone corridor is comprised of a network of sensors and radar.
The corridor is designed to allow companies to test drones and UTM technology in real world settings, generating data for the industry and regulators, all in the hopes of making widespread commercial drone adoption more viable.
That corridor recently received Federal Aviation Administration approval to fly drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) within the first segment. That segment is located between Griffiss International Airport (a NASA-affiliated drone testing facility and one of seven FAA designated testing sites for unmanned aerial vehicles) and the New York State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services State Preparedness Training Center in Oriskany.
This FAA approval allows drone testing without the need for ground-based observers.
New York’s governing leadership said they expect the corridor to draw high-tech jobs to the region and strengthen the state’s economy.
The 50-mile New York drone corridor all started back in November of 2016, when, Cuomo announced a $30 million state investment to develop a drone traffic management system between Syracuse and the FAA’s NYS UAS Test Site at Griffiss International Airport.
Between 2016 and today, a multitude of companies have worked to test projects, including AX Enterprizes, Unifly, Thales, OneSky, ANRA and Airmap. AirMap has served as the UTM provider for the drone corridor.