We just listened to a talk by Greenriver College about thier work to develop and deploy UAVs for commercial use. They are at the forefront of Washington and Oregon political debates on regulatory policies.
While the are experienced with aviation training, more companies are asking for information and training with small, under 250lb, unmanned aircraft for survey, agriculture, and inspection duties in the commercial sector.
A representative of NOAA also spoke about how they have implemented UAVs to maintain national preserves. Being a government organization has helped them test larger cowordinated systems for inforsment of fishing laws and wildlife research. Some of the videos show wild life behavior that is not typically seen due to the disruptive noise that comes from conventional aircraft.
More talks to come…