L-Ne · Historical Source Library

News Source Record

# News Source Record

**L-Ne / Open-source news extract** — Original media coverage of unmanned aerial systems.

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Collection date | 12 August 2014 |
| Platform | Quiet Systems |
| Data label | Open-source news record // LRRK collection product |
| Handling | Public-source material. Image rights require separate verification before publication. |
| Scale | Local |
| Language | English |
| Terms matched | drone; unmanned aircraft; UAS; Aerostar |

## Bibliographic

| Field | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Outlet | Las Cruces Sun-News (Las Cruces, New Mexico) |
| Title | NMSU, FAA pursue sought-after drone research |
| Dateline | Las Cruces, New Mexico |
| First publisher | yes |
| Original URL | https://www.aviationpros.com/aircraft-maintenance-technology/aircraft-technology/unmanned/news/11621950/nmsu-faa-pursue-sought-after-drone-research |
| Archive URL | https://www.newspapers.com/image/997653736/?terms=NMSU |
| Dedup key | 2014-08-12|las-cruces-sun-news|nmsu-ftc-aerostar-faa-currency-flight |
| Source grade | A1 |

## Pictures

- page scan: not downloaded this pass (img CDN 429 — download rate limit). IAT minted from signed-in session. Extract locked from contemporaneous web first-publisher, not Tesseract.
- clips folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1E1fgqg1Wdpjtyv5kQT5S5j50d7s9fQ6I

## Record

**Verified extract — [Fact — A1]** Lindsey Anderson of the Las Cruces Sun-News (reached at 575-541-5462) reported from runway 4-22 at Las Cruces International Airport, where a white trailer's antenna was talking to a 21.5-foot Aerostar A on the tarmac — the New Mexico State University Unmanned Aircraft Systems Flight Test Center, once the lone federally approved civil UAS test site. Deputy Director Dennis "Zak" Zaklan, a retired Navy master chief, said "the technology is moving so quick that the FAA as a regulator and, really, the public cannot keep up with the speed," and that manufacturers "really had no legal place to go and test their aircraft." Zaklan started at the center in 2003 and stood up an operations team in 2004; FAA chose southern New Mexico for limited air traffic, good weather, and low population density. A crew of about seven, mostly military/aviation, has flown about once a week since 2005, usually with seven to 10 airframes including loans. The center tests manufacturer aircraft and protocol for the FAA and contracts with researchers plus Sandia and Los Alamos; after the FAA contract ends "this month," it will lean on those contracts. DHS is using some NMSU procedures out of Corpus Christi; FAA adopted NMSU chase-plane practices. Five of the 2013 six-site awards (Nevada, Alaska, North Dakota, Texas, New York) are open; Virginia is sixth. The Aerostar A cost $500,000 in 2005 and its camera another $500,000; the crew trained three weeks in Israel. Monday's sortie was a "currency flight." External pilot Joe Millette inspected bolts and would fly takeoff/landing; internal pilot Tim Lower and payload operator Clifford Tyree ran the trailer consoles. Landing uses a runway rope/hook. A pickup sat as Millette's dive-behind shelter if he lost the airframe.

**Kinematic object.** Aerostar A (NMSU UAS FTC — Las Cruces Intl, runway 4-22 currency flight); civil UAS test procedures for FAA.

**Coverage frame.** civil / test site / industry

## Source integrity

- Why this is treated as an original: Las Cruces Sun-News staff byline (Lindsey Anderson, local phone) from the NMSU FTC ramp. Syndicated outward by McClatchy; first publisher is LC Sun-News.
- Wire reprint status: Staff-written. Not AP/Reuters. McClatchy News Service carried the Sun-News original; copyright 2014 Las Cruces Sun-News.
- What was excluded: Amazon/Yellowstone color and national six-site recap except as Zaklan context.

## LRRK relevance

Watch / Passport. A Watch desk would have logged the first civil FTC still flying an Israeli-trained Aerostar A on currency sorties while its FAA contract wound down and the six-site network opened.

*LRRK — security assurance for systems that sense, move, and act.*

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