This story originally appeared on fortworthreport.org
By: Shomial Ahmad
A new space dedicated to testing out emerging aviation technologies will soon land in Cowtown as part of the Texas A&M-Fort Worth campus. Think of a space to develop technologies for drones, air taxis and aircraft that travel faster than the speed of sound.
Texas A&M University System announced the establishment of the Center for Advanced Aviation Technologies in late April after securing Federal Aviation Administration approval to test these new technologies. Congress authorized up to $35 million per fiscal year for the next four fiscal years for the center. The funding is pending the passage of the federal budget.
“Our aerospace industry generates $22 billion in annual economic output, which makes Texas the eighth-largest economy in the world, and that’s kind of the center of gravity for what’s going on there,” said Michael Sanders, executive director of the Autonomy Research Institute at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
“We’re going to leverage the Fort Worth area because of the critical importance that the Dallas-Fort Worth area plays to advanced air mobility within the state of Texas,” he said.
Fort Worth makes sense for this innovation hub because of key companies in the region, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Boeing and Bell Flight. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will lead the initiative, with a laboratory component at Texas A&M-Fort Worth and demonstration zones across the state.
Where that lab will be located is still being decided. The Texas A&M University System will bring together its 19 member institutions, along with the University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University and other partners.
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