Three thousand nine hundred miles is a long trip to travel alone.
But that's the approximate length an unmanned aircraft will fly from Grand Forks to Gloucestershire, U.K., next month.
The MQ-9B SkyGuardian, from the California unmanned aerial systems company, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc., will take off July 10 for the first ever trans-Atlantic flight by a civil, remotely piloted aircraft of medium-altitude and long-endurance.
Although Steven Henden, who handles strategic communications for General Atomics wasn't able to say how long the flight will take, a press release Monday said the aircraft will reach the U.K. in time for the Royal Air Force's 100-year celebration and Royal Air International Tattoo show, from July 13 to July 15.
"It's not like flying a British Airway from point A to point B, where they have an approximate arrival time," Henden said.
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The aircraft will fly from the Grand Sky aviation park, located at Grand Forks Air Force Base, where it occupies 217 acres and has UAS tenants General Atomics and Northrop Grumman.
The international trip is a milestone for the city of Grand Forks, Grand Sky President Tom Swoyer said, but it's also a high point for North Dakota.
"All the investments the state has made," Swoyer said, "this is evidence of that paying off."
Since breaking ground in 2015, Grand Sky has raised $50 million of a projected $300 million cost in state and private funds, an expense some North Dakota legislators were eager to support. Following the General Atomics announcement Monday, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., issued a supportive statement saying the General Atomics flight was possible "because of our state's central geography and our unique convergence of public, private and military unmanned aircraft operations."
"You can't just do this anywhere," Swoyer said. "There's a right recipe to make this happen. ... Grand Forks is the place where they (UAS businesses) want to demonstrate it and operate from."
The Grand Sky location allows UAS tenants to access Grand Forks Air Force Base's 12,351-foot runway, which larger commercial air flights like the SkyGuardian need to take off. "Most people probably think of these (unmanned aircrafts) as drones, small helicopter things just buzzing around," Swoyer said. He added that larger aircrafts, as well as civil aircrafts, will join more familiar drones and military aircraft to eventually improve national security and large cargo delivery for agriculture and energy products-both of which North Dakota and its Midwest neighbors produce.
"From Grand Forks, we can support all of that work in the U.S.," Swoyer said.
Update: A previous version of this story said Grand Sky cost $300 million after breaking ground in 2015. $300 million dollars is only a projected cost of all the assests the park plans on building.
