Members with Mississippi State University showcased a new aircraft

The crew at the Raspet Flight Research Lab at Mississippi State University unveiled the Teros UAS

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI)- Mississippi State University is a leader in developing unmanned aircraft. On Thursday, the Raspet Flight Research Lab unveiled the result of years of research and development; its largest uncrewed aircraft to date.

The crew at the Raspet Flight Research Lab at Mississippi State University unveiled the Teros UAS to members of the Starkville community Thursday morning.

“The Teros is an 18 hundred pound uncrewed aircraft with a 44-foot wing span about 400 pounds of payload and can fly for about 24 hours without refueling,” said director of the research lab Tom Brooks.

Brooks said that staff and students have been working on the aircraft for over three years, and it’s not 100% complete, he knows when it is it will be beneficial for many reasons.

“Their aircraft has been in development now for about three and a half or four years; we’re still putting some final touches on it but it been a great aircraft so far, we’ve put several hours on it and it’s going to do wonderful things in terms of advancing our research for students,” said Brooks.

Leaders at Raspet and the University are proud of Mississippi State’s position in unmanned aircraft development.

“We proudly conduct that work every single day supporting our federal partnerships to ensure that when uncrewed aviation integrates into the national airspace; it’s done so in a safe and responsible way,” said Brooks.

The aircraft can perform a variety of functions, but Brooks said Teros will be used to help the community first.

“The possible use cases for this platform are virtually unlimited. First and foremost use cases are really around public safety you know disaster response and safety inspections of our critical infrastructure around our nation. Those are our priorities those are the things that are going to make lives better and in fact, save lives,” said Brooks.

Tero also has applications in agriculture, utility monitoring, meteorological research, and search and rescue missions.

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