NUAIR Issues UTM RFI: Long Term Development of the New York Drone Corridor

New York’s UAS Test Site Organization, NUAIR , has issued a UTM RFI (Request for Information).  The test site has been a major player in testing unmanned traffic management (UTM) capabilities, developing a 50-mile drone corridor to enable testing of advanced drone operations.  Now, NUAIR is beginning to evaluate UTM products that will eventually be implemented to further support operations along the corridor – and potentially, throughout the state.

NUAIR “is in the process of updating the long-range plan for the New York UTM Corridor capabilities and systems as it progresses towards commercialization of UAS applications in New York State. One area of near-term interest is the market availability of UAS traffic management (UTM) elements, consistent with NASA’s UTM architecture, to support flight operations within New York’s UAS Corridor and ultimately beyond,” says an announcement.

New York’s drone corridor is an investment in the drone industry.  The corridor allows for testing of a wide variety of drone ecosystem applications.  While the corridor is available for testing advanced drone missions, it also enables the development of supporting technologies: like communications networks, ground-based radar, and unmanned traffic management systems.  While UTM technology is still in the early stages, NUAIR is interested in what UTM tools can do now – and what is still to be developed.  Eventually, the UTM RFI will lead to a procurement plan.  “This request for information (RFI) is an effort to understand the capabilities and limitations of existing UTM related products and the planned roadmap for their development. The goal is to inform a procurement strategy to develop a commercially viable UTM capability, including persistent flight management capabilities in the coming years consistent with long-range customer needs and NUAIR’s investment budget.”

From the announcement:

NUAIR is interested in suppliers current and planned capabilities to provide a wide range of services as defined in the NASA UTM Architecture and FAA UTM CONOPs. The functions of interest are listed in the full RFI document below. It is not expected that all services described will be available at the current time or that any one supplier will be required to provide all services described. The list of functions provides a long-term potential suite of services that NUAIR is interested in providing to users flying within the confines of the 50-mile corridor and ultimately beyond.

Interested parties are requested to respond to this notice with an information package. The information packages are due no later than March 15, 2021 5:00 PM (EST) and shall be submitted via email to dwhitaker@nuair.org.

Download the full details of this RFI:

• NUAIR UTM Request for Information