Written by Mark B. Moore

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), there are 265,092 licensed commercial drone pilots registered in the United States. Drake State Community and Technical College in Huntsville, Alabama, is planning to immediately increase that total, especially among our growing local Latino community, which consists of approximately 14,000 residents (2020 Census data). Specifically, our two-year institution is now offering an exciting high-tech journey into the world of drone technology by adopting new online, instructor-guided drone pilot training courses developed by Aquiline Drones. Drake State is now the only community and technical college in Alabama to provide such a comprehensive unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program. 

The curriculum will prepare students to take the exam required to become a licensed drone pilot under the FAA after fulfilling two distinct courses:

•  Drone Operation and UAV Aeronautical Procedures - an introduction to drones, that prepares students for the FAA Commercial Drone Pilot (Part 107) certification exam 

•  Cloud Connected Drone Operations, Computing and Analytics – focused on digital technologies that are enabling cloud-connected commercial drone operations and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) provider business formation.  

  For 60 years, Drake State has served the diverse population of North Alabama by building a solid foundation that consists of teaching the most advanced technologies in a hands-on learning environment for students of all ages, cultural backgrounds and ethnicities.  Our mission is always to ensure access to education for all people throughout their lives, with special efforts to support the historically underserved. This has come in the form of reasonable tuition fees, aggressive financial aid packages and generous scholarship awards.

To encourage enrollment among the Hispanic population, Drake State is creating targeted financial aid opportunities, such as a scholarship pool set aside for first-time freshmen of Hispanic or Latino descent. These funds come from the recently awarded anonymous donation for student scholarships. This donation will enable the college to further remove financial barriers for many students who are completing short-term certifications or academic degrees and, thus, can certainly be applied toward our new drone program.

 Once drone program participants complete the two courses, they will be primed to enter this quickly accelerating industry that boasts a potential market share of $127 billion. They can apply their freshly honed skills to work in specialty areas such as asset inspection, delivery and logistics, agriculture or “smart farming,” surveying and mapping, law enforcement, emergency response, smart cities, and border security. 

  In fact, industrial-grade drones have long been in demand by various branches of the military, especially the Army and Navy for safe intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) use cases. Autonomous drones, coupled with strategically placed sensors and mobile command centers (MCCs), can routinely patrol popular border crossings. Since drone swarms and counter drone swarms are considered the future of warfare, the military has taken a keen interest in both the hardware that flies, rolls and swims for a universal system.   

The offering could not have come at a better time in terms of the current global events and Drake State’s particular geographical landscape, with the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command at Redstone Arsenal located a short distance from our campus. In addition to current and new students across the Southeastern region, we will also target military drone operators that are seeking to separate from service along with anyone else looking to improve or change their career.   

Aquiline Drones (AD), a commercial drone manufacturer and cloud technology company based in Connecticut, created its Flight to the Future online drone pilot training program as a remedy for America’s staggering unemployment rates due to the ongoing pandemic. Besides attracting applicants from all parts of the country and from a diversity of industries, AD Founder and CEO Barry Alexander noticed that numerous inquiries resulted from several community colleges in the Northeastern area, which offer that training  only as a certification course. 

Both courses offered at Drake State will take one month to complete and be available year-round starting June 2022. Interested parties may register at https://www.drakestate.edu/workforce-development/drone-piloting 

 We look forward to helping our newly inspired Hispanic and Latino drone pilot students spread their wings of knowledge and fly high, knowing that they will be reaping the benefits of an ever-growing career well into the future! •

Author Bio:

Mark B. Moore recently joined Drake State Community & Technical College as its new Director of Public Relations in the fall of 2021. A graduate of the University of Montevallo, Moore worked for 30 years in marketing, design, and communications. Before joining the team at Drake State, Moore was the Development and Marketing Director at Thrive Alabama, a community health center in Huntsville. He is a member of Leadership Greater Huntsville Class 34 and serves on Huntsville’s Human Relations Commission, American Advertising Federation North Alabama Board of Directors, and Huntsville’s Public Arts Committee.