As businesses and individuals struggle with an uncertain coronavirus-tainted future, Barry Alexander has a clear vision for success. The serial entrepreneur has always been on the cusp of innovation, mainly in aviation, despite seemingly insurmountable odds. Now through his company Aquiline Drones (AD), the veteran airline pilot is offering others the chance to set a course for their future by offering a unique drone pilot training and small business start-up program called “Flight to the Future.”
“From the very beginning, I decided to determine my own destiny by becoming a pilot and pioneering a crucial air ambulance service called ‘Aquiline Air Ambulance’ that was designed to fly patients and medical resources to specialized hospitals across the Caribbean and into the US,” explained Alexander, CEO and Founder of Aquiline Drones.
“Self-actualization is a necessity in combatting adversity, and is the most appropriate gift that gives hope, empowerment, self-worth and balance where financial uncertainty looms over our economy.”
As part of Alexander’s latest endeavor, Aquiline Drones (AD) – a progressive and all-American drone manufacturing enterprise and cloud technology company (AD Cloud), the new online “Flight to the Future” (F2F) training course prepares a participant to become a fully licensed drone pilot and business operator by using advanced technology to create high-paying jobs to help transform the current unemployment landscape. The program can be accessed at: ADflight.to/future
Alexander notes that Aquiline Drones’ Flight to the Future program utilizes the most sophisticated technology platform (Ad Cloud) to achieve its goals, including AD’s proprietary cognitive agent named ‘Spartacus’, that provides feedback throughout a participant’s curriculum and training. Spartacus then becomes a job advisor once the individual establishes his or her business and populates the operator’s app with customer job requests for actual drone job opportunities. This advanced Drone-On-Demand (DoD) job aggregation system matches newly certified drone service providers (DSP) – essentially pilots trained through AD’s F2F program, with real jobs and missions in their respective areas.
The first wave of classes began on September 15, 2020 with continuous enrollment and training throughout year-end 2020 into 2021. The Flight to the Future program ranges in cost from $799 for licensed pilots to $999 for members of the public.
The four steps of the Flight to the Future course offers participants:
1. Pilot Training and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Certification
2. AD Cloud Training and Certification
3. Mastery in a Specific Industry Application
4. Small Business as a DSP, Commercial Drone Insurance, AD Cloud subscription and a state-of-the-art Commercial Drone
“Small business is the lifeblood of our economy and we hope to register upwards of one million new businesses, resulting in one million + new jobs through this program by the end of the year, 2021” adds Alexander.
According to a report by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment in America reached an all-time high of 23.9% – primarily because of the coronavirus pandemic and efforts to contain it. But unlike our predecessors during the Great Depression, today’s 40 million jobless individuals have more options than ever before to quickly reboot their careers in our post-COVID world – and AD is on a mission to help Americans regain financial independence. The full-service, drone and cloud technology company has spent years conceptualizing and incubating this innovative new online drone pilot training and small business ownership program for seasoned aviators, drone enthusiasts and the public.
“As one of four drone airline companies in America, privately owned by professional aviators and guided by a retired three-star Airforce Lieutenant General as our Chief Strategic Advisor, Aquiline Drones has witnessed a massive amount of pilots and military personnel lose their positions and border on bankruptcy as a result of this detrimental pandemic,” said Alexander. “At the most basic level, drones are miniature aircraft and thus, a natural transition for commercial or military pilots. However, we’ve created a simple and tangible training program that appeals to the masses as well. Our powerful drone pilot training program is a chance to get out of unemployment, leave the present behind and reinvent oneself for the high-tech future.”
In fact, a recent report by Drone Industry Insights (DII), projects that the commercial drone sector is growing at a rate of 13.8% compounded annually and is expected to double by 2025 to over $42 billion.
Additionally, the recent American Security Drone Act of 2019, which aims to ban the federal procurement of foreign drones – mainly Chinese – creates unprecedented opportunity for drone solutions in the United States giving rise to a new and lucrative drone manufacturing ecosystem.
Activities easily performed by drones include routine inspections of construction sites, tunnels, bridges, power lines, energy plants, railroad tracks, coastline erosion, real estate, agriculture, livestock monitoring and wildlife management. They are also unrivaled in assessing and mitigating potential natural disasters and other forms of mayhem that could ultimately lead to loss of livelihood, property or even life.
A more detailed application of how an advanced unmanned aerial system (UAS) can benefit a variety of sectors follows:
• Asset Inspection – Drones may be equipped with optical sensors, infrared sensors and normalized difference vegetative index (NDVI) sensors to inspect major plant assets and facilities, like nuclear reactors, oil rigs, natural gas tanks, windmills, power transmission lines, solar panel surfaces and water treatment plants for potential leaks, breaches and failures. In addition, drones can reach remote resources such as drilling and offshore equipment, warehouses and wind and solar farms to improve preventive maintenance, reduce costs and downtime, while improving the safety of personnel and increasing ROI. Utilizing still imagery, video and 3D modeling, industrial structures can be monitored with great detail.
• Delivery & Logistics – Centralized control, autonomous flight and precision terrain data using ‘see-and-avoid’ capabilities allow for small package drone delivery with a variety of payloads.
• Agriculture – Single drones or drone swarms can scan farms to identify land in need of irrigation or fertilization. Autonomous sprayer drones are capable of carrying 25+ pounds of liquid to treat 12,000 square feet, thus distributing fertilizer and insecticides more cost effectively and safely than humans. Drones can also be equipped with LiDAR sensors to perform geodesic analysis in the exploration of new areas suitable for farming. They can also be equipped with infrared sensors to identify the heat signatures of livestock to indicate whether any portion is ill, thus giving farmers critical insights that could impact yield in meat and dairy products. Similarly, drones are able to locate stray animals in the day or night and warn of nocturnal predators.
• Defense – Industrial-grade drones are in constant demand by various branches of the military, especially the Army and Navy for safe intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) use cases. Autonomous drones coupled with strategically placed sensors and mobile command centers (MCCs), can routinely patrol border crossings and drone swarms are becoming a popular and effective method in warfare.
• Video Production – Drones offer next level business marketing for real estate, entertainment venues, tourism, colleges, churches and other institutions with specialized capabilities and preloaded flight configurations.
• Transportation – Drones assist in all road, bridge, tunnel, and mine evaluations, as well as the delivery of goods and supplies.
• Public Safety, Emergency Response, Law Enforcement & Smart Cities – One of the largest areas for commercial drone growth is within the public safety sector. Drones provide effective disaster and medical response, including the delivery of emergency supplies and equipment to victims in areas are that are not safe to travel to by others. They can be deployed ahead of police to provide first-person viewpoints of crimes in action, including live footage of the scene and images of criminals. In a ‘smart city’ initiative, AI-driven sensors designed to pick up abnormal sounds associated with crimes and danger can be positioned in key locations across a region to give police advance warnings thus, keeping them safer on the job. When seconds count in an emergency event, drones can be organized ahead of first responders, fire departments and EMTs to access the situation, provide a critical analysis of the scene and deliver life-saving supplies to victims that are not readily accessible by a human person in time. Even public street cleaning can be assisted by a UAS. If there’s a foot of snow on the ground, drones can scan roads to help snowplows coordinate their actions effectively and efficiently.
Lastly, Alexander notes that drones have been instrumental in protecting our military heroes from COVID-19 by patrolling high-risk areas, monitoring health of personnel, and securing installations. “With a chronic shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), there is no need to expose our servicemen and women to unnecessary risk when robots can be used as frontline responders,” he concludes. “Protecting them now will insure that they can continue to protect the public as this pandemic rages on!
Interested candidates may register at www.aquilinedrones.com/flight-to-the-future.
About Aquiline Drones
Aquiline Drones is an independent, all-American drone company founded by highly experienced aviators, systems engineers and IT gurus. With a customer-centric model, US-based manufacturing and supply chain and world-class MRO services, the company offers innovative and successful ways for using drones in commercial activities.
Supported by a dedicated UAV cloud and real-time OS, autonomous drone operations with real-time control and dynamic in-field decision making capabilities, Aquiline Drones’ full-spectrum of technological solutions provide a more expansive and deeper applicability across countless industries and environments by delivering real-time data insights. Aerospace-compliant processes for software, hardware manufacturing and systems integration, along with best-in-class mission capabilities are being planned and designed as the company continues to create strategic partnerships with Federal, State and private organizations in an effort to develop and launch new drone system applications in a collaborative manner. Visit www.AquilineDrones.com for more information.
