Great, Great Story On Expanding Aviation Industry / Drones In North Dakota

From a press release:

In partnership with local leadership, Northrop Grumman Corporation confirmed its dedication to the future of unmanned systems development in the Red River Valley region by signing a lease agreement to anchor the new Grand Sky Technology Park in Grand Forks County.

Northrop Grumman is working to identify specialized opportunities for the Grand Sky facility. The opportunities, as permitted by the lease, will allow employees to do general office work, research and development, flight test, flight training, flight operations, hangar activities, light manufacturing, assembly operations and warehouse operations. The signed lease permits Northrop Grumman to complete its initial designs and plans for the new facility on ten of the approximately 217 acres that will make up the Technology Park on Grand Forks Air Force Base.

Northrop Grumman designed and manufactures the RQ-4 Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft system flown out of Grand Forks Air Force Base.

Some time ago I posted a number of stories about aviation and North Dakota. The aviation industry in North Dakota is much bigger than most folks might realize. It's quite a story. I think the UND - Grand Forks AFB relationship was the key. 

This was back from a post in December, 2013:

FAA authorizes commercial drone testing.  The WSJ mentioned North Dakota first:
The winning applicants were the commerce department of North Dakota; the state of Nevada; a public airport some 250 miles north of New York City; the University of Alaska; Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi; and a partnership between Virginia Tech and Rutgers University. The first site is expected to begin operating within six months. 

At that same post, the following story and a note that California did not win any federal bids: 

Incredible. Drone giant California loses bids for federal testing sites.

Disappointed California officials were at a loss to explain their failure to land a test site, though some suggested the state didn't do enough to win in the fierce nationwide competition.

The state lost out to Alaska, Nevada, New York, North Dakota, Virginia and — adding salt to the wound — longtime rival Texas.

Not only that but California was the only state with two groups submitting bids — one based in Ventura County and the other in Kern County.

"How California was left off the list, I haven't got a clue," said Bill Buratto, who, as president and chief executive of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn. helped pitch a bid for a test site in California. "It would seem to me that the FAA would look favorably on California." 

My hunch: the FAA didn't need a bunch of crap from activist Californians screaming about privacy issues. 

When I think of drones, I think of Amazon. So, naturally, google, "Amazon 'North Dakota'". This was back in 2009:

Amazon.com is moving about 15 jobs in its merchant-support operations from Seattle to Grand Forks, N.D. A dozen merchant-support jobs will remain in Seattle, said Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith. The move completes a shift that began nearly a year ago, she said. Amazon has been in Grand Forks since 1999, handling calls from consumers and now merchants who sell their products on its Web site. The 15 merchant-support workers in Seattle will keep their jobs until June. 

From wiki:

Amazon, with 600 employees in Grand Forks, is listed as the 7th largest employer in the city.

Fargo: no Amazon in Fargo but Microsoft has over 700 employees in Fargo.  

Amazon has no fulfillment centers in the state of Minnesota. The nearest fulfillment centers to the Bakken are Kansas and Wisconsin.