General Atomics completes first flight at Grand Sky

BY KAYLA PRASEK

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. flew its first flight of a company-owned Predator A July 28 at Grand Sky near Grand Forks, N.D. General Atomics began training its own air crews at its UAS Flight Training Academy in the city of Grand Forks in early July. The General Atomics UAS Flight Training Academy is now open to external students.

“Every second of every day, there’s 60 of our aircraft flying,” says David Alexander, president of General Atomics. “Each aircraft flies an important mission, saving lives, working on counterterrorism, protecting our borders, providing homeland security. The Training Academy will fill a gap going forward, and we’re working with leading industry partners, including the University of North Dakota, and local industry partners, including the UAS Test Site. We’ll provide state-of-the-art training, will operate year-round and will be able to teach about 100 private students per year. This will benefit our domestic and international air crews.”

Tom Swoyer, president and partner of Grand Sky Development Co., says General Atomics’ first flight was “yet another monumental day for Grand Sky, General Atomics, North Dakota and the entire UAS industry. After four years of development, large commercial UAS are flying from Grand Sky, marking one more step toward fully integrating commercial UAS into the national airspace.”

Classroom and simulator instruction will take place at the Training Academy classroom facilities, located at 4775 Technology Circle in Grand Forks. Flight instruction will be held at General Atomics’ temporary hangar at the Grand Sky UAS business and aviation park, located adjacent to the Grand Forks Air Force Base. Construction of a state-of-the-art, 16,000-square-foot Flight Operations Center began in November 2015 and is expected to be completed in spring 2017. PB

Classroom and simulator instruction will take place at General Atomics’ UAS Flight Training Academy facilities in the city of Grand Forks, shown in this rendering.

IMAGE: GENERAL ATOMICS