The skies above the Red River of the North are busy these days, as Grand Forks and the state of North Dakota build what has been called the “Silicon Valley for drones.” As the United States military transitioned from Cold War mode, to peacetime and then back to the War on Terror, the community found its once thriving airbase all but abandoned. Not any more.
The runways that once launched B-52s loaded with nuclear bombs now launch a wide variety of unmanned aerial vehicles, called UAVs or drones. The city of Grand Forks is host to the Northern Plains Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site and a UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) Business and Aviation Park. UAV and UAS are interchangeable acronyms.
The first drones to arrive in Grand Forks were with Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection agency. The three Predator drones were assigned to patrol the Canadian border. The Northern Plains Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site was added a few years ago as the FAA recognized the need for added research, including how to fit UAVs into airspace filled with piloted aircraft.
UAVs for Business or Intelligence
The Northern Plains site conducts such research, along with research into drone applications. In April, 2016, it became one of only two drone operators to be authorized to fly at night and anywhere in the United States “It is one of only a handful of law enforcement groups with the capability of responding to incidents like natural disasters, crime scenes or search-and-rescue missions.”
Grand Sky bills itself as “the United States’ first commercial UAS Business and Aviation Park.” Tenants in the park train UAS pilots, including military pilots, and operate UAV systems. Grand Sky has two tenants at this time, General Atomics and Northrop Grumman. Other local drone firms are working to “demonstrate and develop commercial long-distance flights for electric company asset inspections” from utility sites in the region.
The work is supported by a robust educational support system anchored by the University of North Dakota’s John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences. Northland Community and Technical College, with its aerospace campus in Thief River Falls, MN, also offers “the first unmanned aerial systems maintenance training program in the country.”
If designing, building, operating or maintaining unmanned aerial systems interests you, then, as the old song says “Ya oughta go ta North Dakota!” The opportunities are increasing for those seeking education and employment in the field.
