Officials want ‘drones’ buzzing over Utah

By Vince Horiuchi| The Salt Lake Tribune

An alliance made up of Utah universities and the Governor’s Office of Economic Development is making a bid to turn part of the state into a testing ground for “unmanned aerial systems.” You may know them as drones.

But officials from the Mountain West Unmanned Systems Alliance stress it’s not military drones that would be buzzing around Utah’s airspace if they were awarded the contract from the Federal Aviation Administration. The devices are drones that help people, not blow up villages.

“Think of an aircraft that can fly in [conditions] not safe to be in,” said GOED spokesman Michael Sullivan. “Like fighting a forest fire or going into a fire and seeing what’s going on.”

Marshall Wright, GOED’s director of business development for aerospace and defense industries, said these unmanned aircraft could be used for precision farming such as applying pesticides more efficiently or mapping out urban infrastructure.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/56095188-79/utah-unmanned-drones-alliance.html.csp