First North Dakota-Made UAS

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There’s a new first in the state of North Dakota. The first unmanned aircraft manufactured in North Dakota is completed in Wahpeton.

Adam Overvold just graduated from UND last weekend.

“I graduated last Saturday and had a job two days later,” Overvold says.

And now he is the first Altavian employee in North Dakota, the company that has partnered with ComDel Innovation to manufacture unmanned aerial systems, or UAS, in Wahpeton.

“You launch it, it goes and does its route, it goes until it comes back, you land it and decipher the data later,” says Overvold.

The Altavian Nova F6500 is the first plane that has rolled off the assembly line.

The small aircraft flies high in the sky but it is much more than a sight to see.

“Eighty-five to ninety percent of all the application from UAS’s is going to be towards agriculture. It’s going to be focused on agriculture,” says North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring.

While many unmanned aircrafts are used in overseas combat, these will be used to monitor agriculture and livestock.

“It’s hard to get the kind of repetition that they [farmers] need over the fields to get the real answers that they’re trying to get,” says Damon Wolfe of Altavian.

There are several UAS sites across the country but officials say there are several unique qualities about North Dakota that make it the best.

“We have agriculture, a lot of infrastructure, pipelines, natural resource management,” Wolfe says.

This growing industry is expected to create at least 10-20 more jobs in Wahpeton. And officials across the state are optimistic about its future in North Dakota.

“I mentioned milestones this is obviously a huge one. Really a point of pride for North Dakota,” says North Dakota Lt. Gov. Drew Wrigley.

The first North Dakota-made aircraft presented Friday will be donated to the Fargo Air Museum.