The Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority (OSIDA) and the Oklahoma Department of Aerospace and Aeronautics (ODAA) are currently looking toward the future with planned advancements.

According to a press release, a contract has been entered into what will result in Oklahoma’s first steps toward an airspace management system and automatic detect-andavoid solution which will support drone flights as well as the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) industry. ODAA will be working with the Oklahoma-based company Vigilant Aerospace Systems, Inc. to grow the Oklahoma Air & Space Port located near Burns Flat. The hope is this will support growth for both civilian and military drones.

“Oklahoma understands the importance of the autonomous aviation industry for the state and our nation and is taking the lead in this growing industry and ecosystem,” said Vigilant CEO Kraettli Epperson in the press release. “We are proud that our technology can serve as the cornerstone of this initiative and look forward to seeing FlightHorizon provide a new level of scalable, safe air traffic management in the state while providing opportunities for technological and economic development.”

“Our radar coverage currently comes out of Fort Worth Center,” explained Craig Smith, executive director of OSIDA. “And so by the time that beam gets to Oklahoma, with the curvature of the earth, we’re losing at least 60 to maybe 100 feet of coverage. So we wanted to have, and I know some of our tenants that do some testing out here would like to have a more robust picture of what the airspace around the airport looks like while they’re doing some testing in the area. So, there’s some area there that they just can’t see, and they don’t know if other planes are in that area unless they have some technology on them that identifies them.”

Smith continued on to explain because of this, there is often a need for “chase planes” to keep the aircraft in sight, however these chase planes can lead to safety concerns due to the fact now twice the airspace is being used.

“This technology would put a series of smaller radars in our vicinity on our site here in Burns Flat and in the area around it to kind of give us a local area of coverage that shows pilots and testers and developers, takes a broader picture of this local area to find out what’s in the area, what’s in the sky with them so they can detect and avoid any situation,” Smith said.

Smith explained the funds for the project come from state legislature, specifically the Preserving Rural Economic Prosperity (PREP) Fund.

The cost of the radar is estimated to be between $1.6 and $1.8 million but once the project is completed, which is estimated for the end of this year, the radar will be mobile, allowing for the possibility to use it in other areas of Oklahoma.

“What we’re trying to achieve is that when companies come out and they do some flight testing, they can let the vehicle go beyond the visual line of sight.

They won’t have to have a chase plane up in the sky chasing it around and following it. They can track it from technology on the ground to be able to detect and to find out what’s in the sky around it, where it’s going, what else is around it in the sky.”

Smith spoke about the future that will come with this project, saying in part.

“We are excited about what this does to expand Burns Flat and western Oklahoma.”

He spoke about the importance of the word development in the title of OSIDA.

“We want to make this state an aerospace destination for commercial and military.”