On Monday, July 6th, Mr. Mark N. Lewellen, a recognized UAS expert, presented the Applied Technology Institute?s (ATI) one-day UAS course to the Project and Planning Division (XP) at Vandenberg AFB (VAFB) in sunny southern California.

Vandenberg AFB primarily supports missile and rocket launches, but it also has an airfield with associated controlled airspace. The XP calls itself the ?front door? of VAFB as every project that wants to use their facilities must first come to them. The XP consists of airspace managers, range safety experts and mission planners. They are getting inquiries from UAS programs about locating there and they wanted more information about UAS to work with these new and exciting programs.

The ATI UAS short course is designed for RF communications engineers, aviation experts and project managers who wish to enhance their understanding of unmanned aircraft or become familiar with the "big picture" if they work outside of the discipline.

Each topic addresses real UAS systems (MQ-1 Predator, RQ-4 Global Hawk, RQ-7 Shadow and others) to address real world problems and issues concerning the use and expansion of their applications. Some of the specific topics covered included:

? What are the various categories of current UAS and their capabilities?

? Which type of airborne sensors does UAS use?

? What are the latest developments and major components?

? How are the latest regulatory and spectrum issues being addressed?

? And how will UAS gain access to the National Airspace System?

ATI is the leader in technical and scientific training and is fortunate to have Mr. Lewellen on its faculty. With nearly 25 years of experience, he has a wide variety of space, satellite and aviation related knowledge and more recently he has been working in the exciting field of UAS. (Please see Mark_N._Lewellen)

Mr. Lewellen is currently the Vice Chairman of a UAS group here in the US. This group provided the technical basis for future spectrum requirements for the necessary command and control of UAS to allow for access to national and international airspace. He is also Chairman of a UAS committee at the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland. His committee will propose modifying the International Radio Regulations to provide more frequencies for UAS.

In my UAS course you will gain practical knowledge to understand the different classes and types of UAS, optimize their specific applications, evaluate and compare UAS capabilities, interact meaningfully with colleagues, and master the terminology. The next class is in Beltsville, MD on November 10th, 2009 (UAS Course Schedule)

P.S. For more information on all ATI classes to help you stay current in your field, broaden your professional knowledge and increase your own productivity, please go to ATI courses on the Web.

Thank you!

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