Florida Wants Piece of UAV-testing Market

From Cape Canaveral, a 66-foot wingspan, remotely piloted U.S. Customs and Border Protection aircraft takes off in search of drug traffickers, illegal immigrants or terrorists from heights up to 50,000ft.

On Lake Okeechobee, researchers hurl a custom-built, nine-foot wingspan plane from an airboat to launch an automated, low-altitude flight monitoring invasive plants.

From large to small, the number of such unmanned aircraft systems — popularly called UAVs — is expected to surge as the federal government works to open civilian airspace to them by 2015. Florida officials hope to position the state as a hub for this fast-growing industry by becoming a test site.

“The skies over Florida will look dramatically different in the years to come,” Space Florida President Frank DiBello told a local audience of aerospace professionals this month.

The agency’s board recently approved spending up to $1.4 million to try to win designation as one of six test ranges across the country that Congress has directed the Federal Aviation Administration to name by the end of the year.

By Tim Walters and James Dean

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