The FAA has granted Kansas State Polytechnic's Applied Aviation Research Center permission to fly UAS at night.

The campus's research sector will benefit from this waiver, and the waiver will also be used in commercial flight training courses, as well as in upcoming curriculum in the UAS degree option.

According to Kurt Carraway, UAS executive director of the Applied Aviation Research Center, the waiver request was initially motivated by an ongoing research project with an electric services company called Westar Energy, but Carraway believes that the waiver will open up a plethora of opportunities in other areas, saying the waiver’s “benefits will have an impact on a multitude of contributions this campus makes to the unmanned industry.”

Starting on June 23, the Applied Aviation Research Center introduced night operations into its commercial remote pilot training course. The course addition includes “two hours of classroom instruction covering flight basics at night, necessary waivers and exemptions for night flight and how to set up a night operation.”

After classroom instruction is completed, students receive one hour of hands-on night flight training in the field using a S-1000 multirotor aircraft.

For, David Burchfield, UAS teaching assistant professor and degree option coordinator at Kansas State Polytechnic, giving students the ability to learn about UAS operations at night is another way to give them a leg up once they enter the UAS industry.

“There are an increasing number of night applications for UAS, such as search and rescue, aerial photography and ag mapping, and as time goes on, students are more likely to be working in those conditions,” Burchfield says.

“It is just another tool in their tool box to take with them to industry.”

Kansas State Polytechnic offers two UAS degree options and one minor as a part of its undergraduate academic options. The UAS degree option plans on incorporating night flight training exercises starting this fall.