33 unmanned systems
inside
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ENGINEERING. PRACTICE. POLICY.
collection challenges, determine what aircraft
and sensors are needed to solve the challenges,
integrate those sensors onto the aircraft, and ul-
timately fly the UAS. They also will understand
the current safety and regulatory landscape and
how to interpret and optimize the data they get
back from their vehicle.
The new curriculum, available starting with
the 2016–2017 academic year, begins with in-
coming freshman getting a private pilot cer-
tificate for manned vehicles, and then also
becoming certified to f ly by instruments only.
By the end of the first year they also will have
taken a course on f lying multirotor vehicles in
which each student f lies about 40 missions for
a minimum of 10 hours behind the controls.
By sophomore year, those same students will
be teaching underclassmen how to f ly.
Top: A student and
staff member working
on a multi-rotor at
Kansas State.
Bottom: An Embry-
Riddle student works
with a small rotorcraft.