As an initiative, it qualifies as “doing good for drones for good.” Tech, cloud, and solutions provider Aquiline Drones is offering its uncrewed aerial system (UAS) commercial training and education program free of charge to first responders across the US in gratitude for the work they do on everyone’s behalf.
Saying “thanks” with free UAS training, education for US responders
Connecticut-based Aquiline Drones (AD) has said it is opening up its full Flight to the Future (F2F) UAS training and education service to police officers and firefighters who apply any time until the end of the year. The free offer not only seeks to allow members of those forces wanting to become UAS proficient to do so. It also looks to expand the pool of potential of responders using drones in emergency situations – an enlarged capacity of deployment that will benefit the interests and protection of society at large.
AD’s initiative comes amid more than a year of events that have demonstrated the important contributions of drone-flying responders in managing urgent developments. Whether it’s been delivery of medical supplies and vaccines amid the pandemic; battling wildfires and other natural calamities; accidents and conflict; or nightmarish disasters like the condominium collapse in Miami, police, firefighters, and other frontline responders flying UAS have repeatedly stepped up to contain danger and lead search and rescue operations for victims.
As thanks, AD is opening up its F2F program to members of those forces. Its UAS training and education course, which is usually sold to individuals for $1,299, contains four main components to equip people seeking launch a career in drone sector technology. The first step involves complete drone pilot training and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification. Parts two and three focus on full education of technologies central UAS businesses – cloud, internet of things, artificial intelligence, command and control, etc. – and strategies and best practices in running those. The final course covers the planning, strategic, administrative, financial, and legal brass tacks of setting up the student’s own drone company.
Helping people hoping to broaden UAS experience and activity
In its other activities, AD offers a full range of UAS solutions and services, as well as offers to assist drone businesses and people wanting to work in the sector. Earlier this year, the company launched its modular, self-contained manufacturing unit allowing as many as three workers to assemble components into reliable, fully functional drone for marketing and sale. At the time, AD founder and CEO Barry Alexander described the one-stop-mini-factory concept as a way for drone fans and other people rethinking their lives and work in disrupted, unsettled COVID-19 times to launch a new career in a booming industry.
Now he’s extending the same spirit of deepening UAV knowledge and activity to police officers and firefighters.
“We originally created Flight to the Future as a way to provide new high-tech skills in a burgeoning industry to unemployed workers during the pandemic to fulfill everyday services such as asset inspection, videography, smart farming and land surveying and mapping,” Alexander says. “But using drones to help better society and save human lives was the impetus in creating our company and we’re excited to do our part in arming those in the line of duty with crucial training to keep them safe and secure.”
The online F2F program should be attractive even to responders not interested in founding businesses outside of their current work. At the end of the first UAS training and education component, for example, participants earn their FAA Part 107 commercial drone pilot certification. Who wouldn’t love help and tutoring to ease that alone?
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