Good afternoon and thank you all for coming out.

I am very pleased to announce that today the FAA has approved Virginia Tech to conduct research on unmanned aircraft systems here in Virginia.

We have given authorization for seven different types of operations using unmanned aircraft, including fixed wing and rotorcraft.

We look forward to the important contributions that Virginia Tech and their partners in New Jersey and Maryland will make to our body of knowledge about unmanned systems, and how to safely integrate them into our nation’s airspace.

We’ll see in just a few minutes Virginia Tech’s research in action. Today’s test focuses on highway safety and emergency response. The University will also use unmanned aircraft for a number of other purposes. For example, to inspect power lines and cell towers for damage and maintenance. This work is now done by employees who must climb poles or use a bucket truck, which can be dangerous work.

This test site will also use unmanned vehicles to detect the health of crops, take air quality samples and detect the presence of bacteria, weeds and bugs. Other vehicles will map out the typical landscape of a rural setting – the silos, barns, cattle and other terrain characteristics to create the best procedures for integrating these vehicles into agricultural settings.

The research here will lay out the challenges and the potential solutions for using unmanned aircraft to perform these types of applications.

The FAA’s number one priority is safety. We regulate the use of our nation’s airspace to protect the safety of all aircraft as well as people and property on the ground.

In moving forward, we recognize that the expanded use of unmanned aircraft presents great opportunities, but there are operational issues that we need to address. We need to make sure that unmanned aircraft sense and avoid other aircraft, and that they operate safely if they lose the link to their pilot. We also need to address pilot training. This is why developing more test data is so important.

In addition to the work here at Virginia Tech, members of the Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership will conduct testing in New Jersey and Maryland as well. Future research will include other types of agricultural uses related to crop dusting, and developing procedures to integrate unmanned vehicles into airspace near airports with control towers.

We want to safely expand the use of unmanned aircraft, and the research here in Virginia and the Mid-Atlantic, and other other sites across the country will help the evolution of our airspace. It will help to make sure that America remains a leader in aviation innovation.