Any ideas why State is on the FAA list as being approved to fly drone planes?

weblow

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Mar 3, 2008
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FAA Approved List for Drones

Yes I realize we have an aerospace engineering program. Is this the reason we have approval?

Just thought it was odd. Pretty neat deal, I was just wondering if we actually fly drones and what we fly them for.

Please insert the "they are using them to track cows" joke here.
 

disappointeddawg

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Mar 3, 2008
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I think that company that makes drones that is now based out of GTR (Aurora maybe, might be a different one) used to test there. There is probably still some testing done whether it be by them or the engineering department. I have a book on the history of the Raspet Flight center and it is pretty impressive what all has taken place out there that most are unaware of.
 

weblow

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Mar 3, 2008
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Went to college at State and have been to Starkville my entire life and never knew that it was there. Pretty cool. Here is one of their drones:
 

tupelotim

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Feb 4, 2008
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<font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">The Raspet Flight Research Laboratory (RFRL) is an integral part of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University. Located at Bryan Field
in Starkville, Mississippi, the RFRL is the largest and best-equipped
university flight research facility in the country. Since 1948, the lab
has been active in aerodynamics research, composite prototype
development, and flight testing.

</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">The
lab recently completed a 10-year project with Honda for the development
of two prototype, turbine-powered aircraft and a five-year Westinghouse Electronics supported project for unmanned vehicle development.</font>
 

MSUHistory

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Jan 25, 2009
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From the Office of Research:

Unmanned Aerial Systems Symposium
MSU is very proud to be hosting a conference on Unmanned Aerial Systems, often
called drones, UAVs or remotely piloted vehicles, this month. A number of
national figures in UAS technology are speaking at this event, and we are
looking to have a large number of defense and civil agency leaders, as well as
industry and academia, participating. Discussions will include research,
applications, and policy challenges and opportunities. Please plan on
participating if you have not done so already. More information is available
at http://www.uas.msstate.edu. This area of research is at the center of our
new research strategic plan, and is applicable to a broad cross section of the
university.
 
Jan 15, 2008
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M-State UAS Team.

I've reached out to them via email but haven't heard back from them yet. I work peripherally in that field and have some upcoming stuff with Georgia Tech Research Institute involving UAV/UASs.
 

patdog

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May 28, 2007
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My brother (along with mjoelner) did some pretty interesting stuff with them in the late 80s - early 90s. And as others have mentioned Stark Aerospace is doing some interesting stuff today. There's really a lot of cutting edge stuff going on at and around the airport these days.