Business & Tech
Burnsville Manufacturer Nails Bid to Build Small Drone Aircraft
A community college in Ohio has commissioned a small unmanned aircraft, or drone, currently in development by engineers at UTC Aerospace Systems' Sensors & Integrated Systems—formerly a Goodrich company.
A local division of United Technologies Corp. has been chosen to build a small unmanned aerial system (SUAS), or drone, for use in an Ohio community college's training program for first responders. The drone will be small enough to fit in the trunk of a police squad car.
"(The craft is) an ideal size, weight, and capability," Deb Norris, Sinclair vice president of workforce development and corporate services, told the trade publication Avionics Intelligence. "This electronic air vehicle...can be airborne as soon as a need is identified, and operates in near silence."
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UTC Aerospace Systems will serve as the prime contractor for the micro UAS, a craft commissioned by Sinclair Community College in Dayton, OH. The small drones will be engineered by the staff at UTC Aerospace Systems’ Sensors & Integrated Systems in Burnsville.
The company's contract with the community college includes two air vehicles, a tablet-style ground station, an electro-optical payload, and a data link. The craft will navigate autonomously and come equipped with high-performance, gyro-stabilized, electro-optical cameras, which will give the craft real-time video capabilities.
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At present, the public is more familiar with larger drones, like the Predator (pictured above) or Reaper, which have been used by American forces in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq for attack and espionage. Drones began appearing in the U.S. in the late 2000s. In 2011, it was revealed that unmanned aircraft from an Air Force base in North Dakota had been used to help local police with surveillance, a development that privacy advocates found troubling.
Thus far, domestic use of drones has been limited to law enforcement. However, David Krier, business development director at Sensors & Integrated Systems, said that new, smaller drones could provide "innovative solutions" for a variety of industries on the home front, including emergency response, agriculture, natural resource management, and energy exploration.
Until recently, UTC Aerospace Systems’ Sensors & Integrated Systems was owned by Goodrich Corp. Goodrich was in what was one of the largest acquisitions in the history of the aviation inudstry.
The micro UAS is set to be delivered later this year.
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