Research Collaboration Enables BVLOS UAS Flights for American Water

American Water’s Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Program has entered into an agreement with The New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII), a New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) corporation, to perform research under a NJIT Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 91 Certificate of Authorization (COA). 

The COA enables research activities to take place both Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) and up to an altitude of 1,500 feet above ground level.

“American Water is proud to partner with NJII/NJIT, enabling us to jointly perform unmanned aerial systems and payload research flying up to three miles from a UAS pilot at an altitude of 1,500 feet to capture wide area mapping at high resolutions,” said Christopher Kahn, Director of UAS, American Water. “This significant research will enhance monitoring of source water and potential environmental threats to our critical infrastructure water supply.”

Additionally, American Water’s long-range mapping and inspection airframe, the Censys Technologies Sentaero, provides the ability to safely inspect facilities from miles away through high-resolution cameras, while staying in the air for over an hour.

“American Waters partnerships with NJII/NJIT and Censys Technologies is important for advancing the integration of UAS into the national airspace because it is an example of enterprise operation standardization across multiple applications,” said Trevor Perrott, CEO & Co-Founder, Censys Technologies. “Through American Water’s leadership, our country is another step closer to making safe BVLOS drone missions commonplace. The exciting part is the story doesn’t end here.”