Alaskan company plans Vegas aerial drone base
The state’s fledgling drone industry is giving the local economy a lift.
Dignitaries from across the Las Vegas Valley gathered at a hangar at Boulder City Municipal Airport Friday to get a look at a new industry that will touch nearly every corner of Southern Nevada.
There weren’t any aircraft unveilings or test flights, but what some 100 curious business and government leaders saw was a new company offering a roadmap of what the unmanned aerial systems industry could become in the years ahead.
Las Vegas-based ArrowData will have a traditional manned aircraft at North Las Vegas Airport and will test unmanned systems in Boulder City, one of four designated state sites the Federal Aviation Administration approved for tests that will lead to integration of drones in airspace not reserved for piloted planes and helicopters.
The company with Alaskan roots and 22 employees expects to have 150 workers in Southern Nevada by 2016.
ArrowData’s top local executive, president Mike Bradshaw, who formerly lead the Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems office, said eventually he’d like to see the company manufacture in North Las Vegas.
For now, the company is crawling before it walks, using video cameras and sensor arrays in a traditional, single-engine Cessna 206. Eventually, the technology will be transferred to remotely piloted aircraft that will download images and information in real time to the Switch Communications Supernap facility for processing and display to customers.
ArrowData’s Cessna and an RPV octocopter that represents the company’s future were on display in the hangar, as were screens with the video imagery from test runs.
Gov. Brian Sandoval, whose Office of Economic Development spearheaded the effort to become one of six states to test unmanned systems for the FAA, was dazzled.
“When I talk about the new Nevada, this is it,” said Sandoval, who has a vision of Nevada becoming the center of drone technology.
Sandoval wasn’t the only dignitary rolling out the red carpet for ArrowData.
North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, who had a small drone deliver his state-of-the-city speech at the Texas Station last month, sees the industry as “a game changer.”
His North Las Vegas City Council colleague, Councilman Isaac Barron, a counselor at Rancho High School, expects the aviation magnet school program to provide interns for ArrowData.
Bradshaw, a native Nevadan, pitched ArrowData to the Barrow, Alaska-based Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp., a native Alaskan holding company with a diverse portfolio of primarily government support companies. The ArrowData investment is the corporation’s first foray into a commercial project.
Ukpeagvik Inupiat CEO Gerrie L’Heureux worked with Bradshaw when he was with Bowhead, the Ukpeagivik company that runs the state’s unmanned aerial systems office.
“Imagine a day when a firefighter can assess fire danger with real-time video as he goes to the fire,” Bradshaw said. “Imagine a day when engineers can reroute traffic and ease congestion as it occurs. Imagine a day when a search-and-rescue squad can find the exact location of someone who needs help in real time.
“That day is today,” he said.
The ArrowData system has vast commercial applications. It can be used to deliver real-time aerial high-definition video and data for public safety, entertainment production, high-definition aerial mapping and modeling, utility inspections and monitoring and aerojournalism to cover weather, traffic and breaking news events.
A division of Bowhead Mission Solutions, Front Row Cam, is the entertainment side of the venture. The aerial platform can provide live content from concerts, conventions, festivals and sporting events from a drone-mounted camera that can be streamed to multiple channels around the world, including websites and mobile devices.
ArrowData plans to exhibit at the 2015 National Association of Broadcasters trade show April 13-16 in Las Vegas.
Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter. Contact reporter Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893.
