Drone-flying classes coming to Virginia

Want to become a drone operator? There’s a class for that.

Some community colleges in Virginia will soon begin offering drone-flying classes, according to The Washington Post.

{mosads}The National Science Foundation awarded a $900,000 federal grant to Virginia educators in an effort to teach students how to use the emerging technology, which is quickly becoming a massive new industry.

The courses, which are slated to begin next summer, will educate students about how to fly, gather and maintain data using unmanned aircraft systems.

“That’s going to change how we analyze what’s happening with our world,” Cherie Aukland told the Post. She’s the head of the geographic information system program at Thomas Nelson Community College near Williamsburg, Va., and is part of the drone-education effort.

While federal regulators continue to craft a national framework for the technology, drones are already being deployed for things such as surveying agricultural crops, providing emergency response efforts, making deliveries, conducting environmental research and even recreational racing.

Students used a drone during one recent project examined 100 acres of land at NASA’s Wallops Island facility along Virginia’s eastern shore, which only cost $1,000 and took eight minutes, according to the Washington Post. The same work using a plane with a human pilot would have likely cost more money and taken more time.