Roswell wants to be site for drone airspace testing

Roswell hopes to become one of six places nationwide that the federal government plans to pick as sites for testing how unmanned drone aircraft would fit into the nation’s airspace.

According to the Roswell Daily Record (http://bit.ly/1009TM6 ), the eastern New Mexico city is teaming up with Chaves County and other entities on an application.

The Federal Aviation Administration in February requested applications for sites to conduct testing of integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace system.

The FAA says it wants a diversity of sites, taking into account geography, climate, infrastructure and research needs.

Jessica Chaves of the Roswell-Chaves County Economic Development Council Corp. says work is under way to secure land-use agreements under the proposed airspace and to gather information for an economic impact assessment.