An agreement between the Quebec UAS Centre of Excellence (UAS CE), the Texas Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation (LSUASC) and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) was made public on May 9 during the Canadian networking reception of the annual XPONENTIAL conference held in Dallas, Texas.
The three parties agreed to provide joint services and products to enhance the integration of unmanned aircraft/aerial systems (UAS) into the U.S. and Canadian airspace. The agreement is aiming at areas of beneficial opportunities like service provider credentialing, UAS flight test partnering, test site policies and procedures collaboration, as well as training joint support.
“UAS CE is very excited about this agreement with the Texas Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation (LSUASC) and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX),” said Quebec UAS Centre of Excellence director general Marc Moffatt. “We believe that this partnership represents a major step for the civil and commercial UAS community, which should allow us to work conjointly in various R&D [rsearch and development] fields, BVLOS [beyond visual line-of-sight] and more, as well as sharing developments in both the Canadian and United States industries.
“The Quebec government has recently recognized the importance of developing an ecosystem dedicated to the civilian UAS industry where the UAS CE will play a leadership role in the initiative. This agreement should also benefit the Quebec ecosystem initiative underway.”
“We are excited to be a part of this momentous occasion and to work collaboratively with the Quebec UAS Centre of Excellence and our friends at TEEX,” said Lone Star UAS Center executive director, Jerry H. Hendrix. “This further signifies the global impact that unmanned aircraft systems are having across the world. Common research, testing and integration in Canadian domestic airspace and in the U.S. national airspace will be of great benefit to Transport Canada, the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] and global partners. In items like detect and avoid and beyond visual line-of-sight operations, better solutions for commercialization will evolve. Global partners will recognize the value of the agreement to provide them with a common solution addressing research, testing, training, credentialing and operating unmanned aircraft systems. This MoU and new collaborative relationship sets the framework for expansion of our global partners across country boundaries.”
“I am excited about this partnership between TEEX, UAS CE and LSUASC”, said Gary Sera, TEEX CEO. “TEEX looks forward to leveraging our 50-plus years of training experience to enhance training and credentialing in the UAS industry both in the United States and in Canada.”
This agreement is the result of many discussions and consultations between the three parties, initiated in May 2016 at the occasion of the Quebec-Texas Seminar on drones in New-Orleans and co-organized by the Quebec office in Texas. The agreement established a joint quarterly meeting structure, which should focus on developing projects and identifying the necessary funding.
