College works with local unmanned aircraft company on new programs

Press

CHINO VALLEY – Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS), better known as drones, may soon be crisscrossing the skies over Chino Valley.

But they won’t be doing any spying. The sUAS are part of a new program under development at Yavapai College that would use UAS for safety programs, including fire sciences, emergency management and agricultural studies. The planes will be restricted to the 80 acres of airspace over the college’s agri-business property in Chino Valley as part of a recent Federal Aviation Administration agreement that allows the craft to operate below 400 feet.

The FAA agreement is one part of a new partnership between the college and Swift Radio planes, a local Prescott business that manufactures unmanned aircraft. The college plans to initially lease an aircraft from the local company.

Administrators with the college’s Chino Valley campus are currently in the planning stages for the sUAS program, said John Morgan, dean of the Yavapai College Chino Valley campus.

“It’s been kind of a long process because we had to get a COA (certificate of authorization) from the FAA. That process took us a couple of years to do. We’re going to take the bulk of this year to try to develop this program,” Morgan said. “The largest portion of everything we’re going to be doing is really data analytics.”

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