Tech Briefs Magazine - February 2022 - 44

FACILITY FOCUS
The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
I
n 1925, John Paul Riddle and T. Higbee Embry
together formed the Embry-Riddle Company to
teach flying. In spring 1926, the company opened
the Embry-Riddle School of Aviation.
After a merge with the Aviation Corporation, the
Embry-Riddle flying school was closed in 1930.
However, in 1939 Riddle, John Graham McKay and
wife Isabel re-established the school in Miami,
Florida. The school was moved to Daytona Beach in
April 1965.
Embry-Riddle became a nonprofit in 1959 and
was awarded university status in 1968. It changed its
name to The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
in 1970.
Embry-Riddle's history in flight education has
positioned it to become a pioneering institution for
the study of space-related endeavors. It offers
applied research degree programs that are deeply
rooted in research and focused on aviation and
aerospace.
Today, the school offers seven primary fields of
study covering a wide range of aviation-related and
nonaviation-related industries including aviation;
space; applied sciences; engineering; security,
Intelligence, and safety; computers and technology;
and business.
The faculty and students at the university are
actively involved in technology research across
these seven areas.
Aviation
A team at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's
College of Aviation is conducting a research that
could play a major role in expanding restrictions on
small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), or drones,
being flown beyond the visual line of sight of their
operators - marking an important milestone that
would pave the way for advancements like drone
delivery and urban air mobility.
Backed by funding from NASA's University
Student Research Challenge, the Assured
Autonomy Research Initiative, as the project is
called, aims to improve the safety and reliability of
sUAS by creating a redundant flight control system.
The proposed system could serve as a 'backup' to
the primary flight computer, in the case of an inflight
loss of communications or control.
If successful,
National Airspace System.
44
Cov
Embry-Riddle offers applied research degree programs that are deeply rooted in
research and focused on aviation and aerospace. (Photo: Embry-Riddle)
Aerospace Engineering professor Riccardo Bevilacqua is leading the research on EmbryRiddle's
Daytona Beach Campus, with help from graduate student Katharine Larsen.
(Photo: The Bevilacqua Family).
the project could help push the Federal
Aviation Administration toward easing current regulations,
which would allow for wider use of autonomous aircraft in the
Space
An Embry-Riddle team patented a device that provides a
workable strategy for combating the problem of debris accumulating
in space from defunct satellites. Known as the Drag
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