Drones to Take Off in North Idaho
- Commercial use of Unmanned Aircraft on the rise.
- May 12, 2015
- 2 min read
Drones are a game changer.
The military, agriculture, recreation, surveying, cartography and a host of other applications have the future expectations for the commercial use of drones soaring.
The Federal Aviation Administration predicts the number of regulated Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the U.S. will rise to 7,500 by 2018 as drones are increasingly incorporated into commercial activity. With North Idaho College’s Workforce Training Center and Aerospace Center of Excellence located in the area along with drone-related businesses such as Empire Unmanned, North Idaho is poised to be at the forefront of drone operations. Retired U.S. Air Force pilot Bradley Ward is the president of Empire Unmanned, a new division of Empire Aerospace, which has access to the first FAA approval for use of drones commercially for precision agriculture. Empire Unmanned is based in Hayden.
“UAS (Unmanned Aircraft Systems or drones) manufacturers will require a broad spectrum of expertise from electrical component technicians to experts in composites to engineers of all stripes,” Ward said. “On the service or operations side, there will be an increasing demand for field personnel, pilots and visual observers, as well as analysts and GIS experts to process the data. Locally, we expect most of these jobs to provide service to agriculture and natural resources, but there is also a demand for general surveying and mapping.”
Ward’s company is currently recruiting drone pilots and visual observers. He has 10 years of experience in drone aircraft, served as the squadron commander of an unmanned reconnaissance squadron and helped craft unmanned policy at the Pentagon.
The Workforce Training Center is offering several special interest courses (online and both in-person) on drones such as “Introduction to Unmanned Aircraft Systems,” “Command Control and Communications,” “Sensor and Payload Applications,” “Visual Observer” and “The Future of Drones.” For more information on these classes taught through the NIC Workforce Training Center, contact 208.769.3333 or www.nic.edu/wtc.
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