UAS Safety and Integration Initiative

Initiative Background

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have been used primarily by the military for many years. As this emerging technology develops, UAS activity is on the rise with benefits expected through a variety of civilian and commercial applications. In 2012, federal legislation required the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to safely integrate UAS into the National Air Space by September 2015. In December 2013, the FAA announced the selection of the six public entities that will develop unmanned aircraft systems research and test sites around the country.

In February of 2012, NCTCOG staff published the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Report, a product of the Regional General Aviation and Heliport System Plan.  The purpose of this report was to provide insight into recent attention centered on future growth and use of unmanned aircraft systems and their technology.

The report concluded that as the integration of UAS into the National Airspace System (NAS) generated more interest both nationally and within the North Central Texas region, ongoing data collection and tracking efforts would be necessary to understand the intended uses and frequency of future operations.  This data is used to understand the operations of new technologies that will benefit aviation stakeholders by planning for infrastructure improvements to support the growth of the new technology. It was recommended that a regional group or committee of North Central Texas stakeholders be organized to analyze data collected and the progress of UAS growth. This could also include coordination with state and federal agencies to develop effective reporting and operational requirements.

In response to the growing interest and usage of UAS, NCTCOG created the UAS Safety and Integration Initiative. The initiative is a multi-pronged effort to foster and safely integrate the use of unmanned aircraft systems within the North Central Texas region. The initiative will include activities such as regularly occurring UAS workshops, UAS working group meetings, and other planning activities. Other deliverables include a webpage to house UAS information and resources.

Planning Activities

UAS Task Force

The Task Force is a group of industry experts that provide recommendations to safely integrate UAS implementation within the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area. This is a multifaceted Task Force represented by more than 150 public and private organizations, collaborating to mitigate reckless UAS operation and promote the safe integration of UAS technology into the DFW regional airspace.

PSURT (Public Safety Unmanned Response Team)

The mission of the North Texas Public Safety Unmanned Response Team is to provide professional UAS assistance to jurisdictions and emergency operations centers in support of their response, relief, and immediate recovery efforts.

Click here for PSURT website.

Regional UAS Standards: Public Safety UAS Best Practices (Link to PDF)

Workforce Development

One of the most important activities of the initiative is to work with industry stakeholders, companies, and local educational programs to ensure that the North Texas region is able to produce an educated and qualified workforce to sustain the booming growth of the UAS industry. To accommodate this, NCTCOG organized an educational working group made up of industry professionals, educators from all levels of academia and local, state, and federal agency staff. The main goal of this working group is to increase collaboration among the educators and UAS industry to establish consistent regional curriculums for workers interested in this industry.   

Click here for Workforce Solutions website.

Aerospace Consortium

Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin, and Triumph Aerostructures – Vought Aircraft Division have led the Aerospace Consortium. With the support of the Arlington and Fort Worth Chambers, Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County, the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center, and Hillwood Properties, the Consortium continues to make important contributions to the North Texas region. As one of the key industries for the region, aerospace manufacturing employs workers in over 75 companies, and promotion and training programs developed by the Aerospace Consortium will ensure that there is a pipeline of future employees for years to come.

Click here to find out more about the North Texas Talent Pipeline. 

Regional Transportation Council

The Regional Transportation Council (RTC) is the independent transportation policy body of the Metropolitan Planning Organization.  The RTC meets the second Thursday of each month, and the council’s 44 members include local elected or appointed officials from the metropolitan area and representatives from each of the area's transportation providers.  The RTC oversees the metropolitan transportation planning process.

Primary activities:

• Guiding the development of multimodal transportation plans and programs.
• Determining the allocation of federal, state, and regional transportation funds.
• Selecting transportation projects in some programs and recommending projects to the Texas Transportation Commission for other programs.
• Ensuring transportation providers coordinate services.
• Ensuring the metropolitan area complies with state and federal laws and regulations regarding transportation and air quality.

In early 2021, The RTC voted on and approved a resolution supporting the safe and efficient integration of unmanned aircraft systems into the DFW regional transportation system. This is an exciting and important step that will give the region access to transportation funds to further promote and develop UAS and infrastructure.  This will also increase the visibility of the North Central Texas region and demonstrate the regional vision to become a leader in UAS technology and integration.

Click here to view the resolution.

Aerial Robotics and Education 

North Central Texas Aerial Robotics Initiative

This initiative began in the 2019-2020 school year as part of the Texas Regional Pathways Network. This initiative is focused on creating new innovative career pathways within the STEM realm to meet demand for licensed small UAS operators. Initially,  10 NCTX school districts, ranging in enrollment from 187 students (Strawn ISD) to more than 83,000 students (Fort Worth ISD), shared a mission that included preparing all students for success in college, career, and community leadership. Each district established its own UAS Program, aligned directly with local industry. In addition to ten K12 school districts, there was a post-secondary partner and five business/industry/workforce partners. 

Click here to learn more about the North Central Texas Aerial Robotics Initiative.

Texas Aerial Robotics

This is an intercollegiate robotics team based at The University of Texas in Austin. This team takes part in international competitions that requires them to brainstorm, create, program, and fly small UAS to complete various tasks that are scored. Major events are put on by the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) organization.

Click here to learn more about the Texas Aerial Robotics. 

Click here to learn more about the International Aerial Robotics Competition.

North Texas Region UAS Testing Ranges

Alliance UAS Mobility Innovation Zone

The Alliance Mobility Innovation Zone is located within the Alliance area, just north of Fort Worth. It was created to foster the growth of new and exciting transportation technologies, including UAS. A UAS proving ground within the zone is intended to allow for private and public organizations to work on and test UAS technologies in suburban and urban environments.

Click here to learn more about the Alliance Mobility Innovation Zone.

Take a Virtual Tour here.

Choctaw Nation UAS Beyond

The Beyond Program in the Choctaw Nation is a follow-up to the FAA’s UAS Integration Pilot Program. The initial program created on October 25, 2017 was intended to enable local, state, and tribal governments to collaborate with the UAS industry to advance more complex UAS operations into the National Airspace System.

According to the Choctaw Nation website, the Beyond Program will focus on:

• The steps necessary to facilitate scalable, reputable, and economically feasible Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.
• Collection, measurement, and response efforts for community feedback related to UAS operations. 
• The quantification and measurement of societal and economic impact of various UAS operations.

Click here to learn more about UAS in Choctaw Nation.