Since the initial roll-out of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles started there have been many times where people have speculated that one day UAV’s will have the capacity to do many things. As Prairie Public reporter Todd McDonald tells us, that “one day” might be upon us…
"...If it hasn't arrived, the dawn is upon us, that's for sure."
Tom Swoyer, Jr. is president of the Grand Sky UAS test site. He says Grand Sky recently completed a list of 10 tasks developed by the Federal Department of Defense.
They all involved UAV flights between the test park, west of Grand Forks, and the Cavalier Space Force Station.
"...All the flights went smoothly, we finally got them in, but we had to dodge, you know, the last couple weeks have had some crazy weather, crazy at least from a drone perspective. Rain at Cavalier means I can't launch because I have to be able to get there and back to count a successful flight.
So we'd have days where it would be raining in Grand Forks and fine at Cavalier, or raining in Cavalier and fine at Grand Forks, and so we'd have to find those windows. And then the Canadian wildfire smoke came swooping down."
Despite those challenges, Swoyer says the missions to carry cargo were accomplished successfully.
"...Brought some lunch up to the team that we had working at Cavalier, we carried some different supplies between the base and Cavalier, and so that part was great. But the real exciting and a part of the entire process that I think is really important is we did carry 18 units of blood, blood products, so plasma, platelets, things like that, about 90 nautical miles."
Swoyer says not only were the flights a technical success, the blood products being transported arrived safely and in good condition.
Swoyer says that while many advances are being made, his growing concern surrounds the pace of development and whether it's getting ahead of the regulation of the tech.
For Prairie Public, I'm Todd McDonald.