Israelis In North Dakota To Test Drones -- May 23, 2016; Israelis Set Drone Record In North Dakota

Updates

May 30, 2016: The Bismarck Tribune is reporting that North Dakota claims drone record --  

What's believed to be the world's first test of its type using large unmanned aerial systems for agricultural data gathering in a public-private partnership took place at the Hillsboro [North Dakota] Municipal Airport.

John Nowatzki, the North Dakota State University agricultural machine systems specialist for the Extension Service, says a May 20 test was the first test of UAS vehicles for agricultural data gathering he's heard of in the U.S. It is the first in the world, he says.
"We're flying over large areas," Nowatzki says, noting the footprint of the study corridor is 40 miles by 4 miles.

The Extension Service preceded the tests with Steele and Traill county public meetings and notices, specifically to address privacy concerns.

The project uses the Hermes 450, a plane that weighs 1,200 pounds and has a 35-foot wingspan.

The plane is owned by Elbit Systems of Haifa, Israel. It carries up to 400 pounds of equipment and can scan at 92 mph, using an internal combustion engine.

The aircraft has the ability to stay in the area for more than 12 to 15 hours and collect imagery at more than 50,000 acres per hour at 2-inch ground sample size, Nowatzki says. Before this aircraft, small UAS vehicles have been able to collect imagery at only about one square mile per hour.

North Dakota was one of six states to get FAA permission to test drones. From what I have read, North Dakota leads the other states in testing. California applied for permission to be one of the six states but was denied by the FAA. If one reads between the lines of this story, one can understand why California's application was denied.

Original Post

From the PhillyTribune.com:

HILLSBORO, N.D. — A high-flying drone that will be used to test precision agriculture methods made its inaugural flight Friday in North Dakota amid handshakes and smiles from aircraft operators and farm officials.

The Israeli-manufactured Elbit Systems Hermes 450 aircraft took off from the Hillsboro airport to start a summer-long project that will take pictures of farmland in the fertile Red River Valley. The test is meant to show whether the larger drone is more efficient to capture imagery of agricultural land than satellites or smaller unmanned aircraft.

“Absolutely, this is really exciting,” said drone pilot Matthew Mason, a New Hampshire resident who is spending the summer in a Fargo hotel. “With this camera we can count seeds and all sorts of stuff. The capabilities are like, wow, this is crazy.”

North Dakota is believed to be the only state qualified to fly the aircraft because it has clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones at higher altitudes.

The FAA in 2013 selected North Dakota as one of six drone test sites in the U.S. and has since approved the site to fly above the current 200-foot blanket for most of the country.

The Hermes 450, which is 20 feet long with a 35-foot wing span, is expected to take pictures as high as 8,000 feet. It will cover an area about 4 miles wide by 40 miles long.

I replied in an e-mail to the reader who sent me this:

The agricultural uses are endless.

I spent several months some years ago filling out hail crop insurance for farmers in western North Dakota. The forms are somewhat difficult to complete, and incredibly tedious. That's at the front end.

If the farmer has a hail damage loss to report, an insurance adjuster from somewhere -- could be one or two days away -- has to drive out to western North Dakota, survey the damage from the ground, which is hardly very accurate or efficient -- insurance companies are going to use drones to assess crop damage in the future. I would bet on it.

Another drone use for agriculture: aerial spraying. Drones don't have to be small.