General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) began operations of its Flight Test and Training Center (FTTC) at the GrandSKY UAS Business Park near Grand Forks, North Dakota, on July 18, 2016.
Over the past 10 years, the FTTC has been the site of a number of historic “firsts” for Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) and has delivered training to more than 4,000 pilots and sensor operators that fly UAS produced by GA-ASI.
GA-ASI CEO Linden Blue, commented, “It’s been an eventful decade for the FTTC. We opened this facility with the idea of expanding our flight test and training capability in a location with a lot of open sky, and we found that in North Dakota.”
The FTTC quickly became an important piece in the emergence of GA-ASI’s next-generation MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA), which has been ordered by 10 countries.
Several important MQ-9B test flights originated from the FTTC, which is also a prime location for international customer flight crews to receive training for their pilots, sensor operators, and mission intelligence coordinators.
“Starting with the first nonstop transatlantic flight of a medium-altitude, long-endurance RPA (MQ-9B) in 2018, GA-ASI has used the FTTC as a launch pad for a number of historic flights, including flying an MQ-9A inside the Arctic Circle, and just this year when we completed Flight Into Known Icing tests using MQ-9B,” said Mr. Blue.
U.S. Senator John Hoeven (R-ND) added, “We’ve built North Dakota into the premier location for unmanned aviation. As one of GrandSKY’s anchor tenants, General Atomics has been a tremendous partner in this effort, and we appreciate the company’s continued investment in our UAS ecosystem over these past 10 years. When we first began working to establish our unmanned industry more than 20 years ago, GrandSKY was just an idea. Through years of collaboration and effort, we secured a lease to establish the technology and business park at the air base, and we got to work finding the right tenants to make this first-of-its-kind initiative a success. As we worked with General Atomics’ leadership, including CEO Linden Blue, it was clear the company would be a natural fit. Today, we look back on how far our efforts have taken us and celebrate a decade of successful partnership.”
Milestones and highlights from the first 10 years of the FTTC:
- July 2016: First flight of Predator® RPA
- August 2017: First permanent hangar opens
- July 2018: MQ-9B SkyGuardian® takes off on first trans-Atlantic to RAF Fairford
- August 2018: FTTC expands from 5.5 to more than 11+ acres
- August 2019: No-Chase Certificate of Waiver or Authorization received from the FAA
- March 2020: New Predator Mission Trainer installed
- September 2021: MQ-9A takes off to fly north through Canadian airspace past the 78th parallel
- July 2022: First SkyGuardian Mission Trainer installed
- February 2023: MQ-9B completes Cold Weather Validation flight test
- May 2023: First international customer arrives for MQ-9B flight training
- August 2023: Second permanent hangar opens
- August 2024: Air Systems Training team established to expand training for global MQ‑9 users
- April 2026: MQ-9B completes Flight Into Known Icing tests
