Cal UAS submits final UAS document to FAA
By Jack Barnwell
After a three months of long nights and sorting through copious amounts of data, the Cal Unmanned Aircraft Systems Portal filed its final volume Monday for its bid to be considered one of six Federal Aviation Administration’s test sites for unmanned systems.
Eileen Shibley, director of China Lake Alliance and the proposal team’s leader, said Monday the filing was the last big step before the FAA decided to begin test site visits.
“The whole team is tired, but it’s a good sort of tired,” Shibley said, describing the overall mood of her team.
Shibley said the last team-produced volume, Volume 7, was the economic impact study portion of the eight-volume proposal.
“It’s a peek into the future of what the impact unmanned systems will have on this valley and potentially the state,” Shibley said.
While she indicated that a lot of data had been researched and discovered, the overall data would be held close to the team’s vest while the FAA considered all applicants.
However, one thing she shared was the team’s effort to garner letters of support from the community and the local businesses — something that has returned dividends.
“We uploaded more than 900 letters to the FAA Monday,” Shibley said. “Many of them were from local businesses that want to see unmanned systems come to the valley.”
