Last Wednesday, Mississippi State University President J. Charles Lee, U.S. Representatives Chip Pickering and Roger Wicker and Aurora Flight Sciences President John Langford announced collaboration between MSU’s Raspet Flight Research Lab and Aurora Flight Sciences to build unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at the lab, located at George M Bryan Airport in Starkville.
Lee introduced the representatives and expressed that “Aurora’s presence can only strengthen the Aerospace Program … this kind of of operation … awakens the curiousity of our most gifted students.”
According to Rep. Wicker, UAVs aircraft without people on board allow “state of the art military reconnaissance flown by a pilot thousands of miles away” and taking the pilot out of harms way.
Representative Wicker officially gave the announcement shortly after 11 a.m. He stated that Wednesday was a “red letter day in our region” and announced that the first UAV would be complete with in a year and added that within four years, the collaboration would add 300 jobs to the area.
In support, Congress has allocated $3 million in 2005 for equipment and tooling upgrades for the Raspet Lab. Within the four years, operations at Raspet will be superseded by a permanet facility at Golden Triange Regional Airport near Columbus. “Who knows, Dr. Lee,” Wicker suggested, “maybe some of your graduates can cross the county line for a job.”
Representative Pickering followed Wicker and announced that in the past year alone, $8 billion have come to Mississippi through national security and security. Wednesday was a “great morning for Mississippi, this institution, for national defense …” and for the economy.
Aurora president John Langford spoke as well. He first thanked Lee, Wicker, Pickering, Senators Lott and Cochran, Aerospace Engineering Department head Dr. Anthony Vizzini and the Raspet staff. Afterwards, he described the particularly UAVs. The Hunter II is currently being built for the Army while Orion is intended for the Air Force, to be used in a “hunter-killer” role with the potential for climate research.
The first Aurora employees will report for work at Raspet on January 3rd, while the first sixteen UAVs should be complete within the year.