KSU-Salina drone program provides eye in the sky

ERIN MATHEWS, The Salina Journal

SALINA, Kan. (AP) — When the bill for sending twoKansas State University at Salina staff members for training on new equipment hit the accounting office at the main campus in Manhattan, it looked like some kind of joke.

“What the heck are you doing in Latvia shooting penguins off catapults?” the accountant asked in a phone call to Josh Brungardt, director of KSU-Salina’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems program.

Brungardt explained that the university had just acquired two Penguin B unmanned aerial vehicles, which are made by UAV Factory of Latvia, and staff needed training to be able to properly launch them into flight with a specially designed catapult.

Brungardt discussed the Penguin B and others of the 12 unmanned aircraft maintained on the Salina campus as part of the university’s UAS program Thursday at the quarterly luncheon of the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce Military Affairs Council.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/KSU-Salina-drone-program-provides-eye-in-the-sky-3722815.php