Cloud-Seeding UAS Successfully Tested in Nevada

by | Mar 28, 2016

Drone America's DAx8 multi-rotor aircraft deploys two cloud-seeding flares during a recent flight test in Reno, Nevada. (Credit: Kevin Clifford/Drone America)

Drone America's DAx8 multi-rotor aircraft deploys two cloud-seeding flares during a recent flight test in Reno, Nevada. (Credit: Kevin Clifford/Drone America)

A team of Nevada scientists and unmanned aircraft system (UAS) engineers successfully flight tested the first-ever autonomous cloud-seeding aircraft platform.

As the first phase in a new industry-academic research partnership between the Desert Research Institute (DRI), Drone America and AviSight, the test flight of a DAx8 multi-rotor aircraft with attached cloud-seeding cargo validates the potential for UASs to significantly enhance airborne seeding operations, explained Adam Watts, Ph.D, the project's lead and an assistant research professor at DRI.

Utilizing our state's FAA test-site designation, we were able to fly this advanced aircraft right here in northern Nevada and verify that UASs are fully capable of carrying active cloud-seeding payloads, noted Watts

Click here for more information about DRI's cloud-seeding program.

 

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