Testing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

By Ellen Reinhardt

ATLANTA  —

Students at Middle Georgia State College’s aviation campus in Eastman are testing drones, but not the military drones you’ve heard of. They are working with NASA, Boeing and other companies using an unmanned aerial vehicle.

The UAV used at the Heart of Georgia Regional Airport is the first drone of its type to be tested in the U.S. Program coordinator Chad Dennis says they are able to check out ideas for different airplane parts in a real world environment.

He says “With wings and tails and different engine configurations and different mounting methods. We can test on a flying aircraft, not in a simulated computer environment. So therefore we can spend a million dollars to find out this will work or will not work. As opposed to spending a billion dollars to find out it won’t work.”

Intern Michael Mendez, a former music major, plans to make a career working on UAV’s.

http://www.gpb.org/news/2013/01/14/testing-unmanned-aerial-vehicles