JFK UFO by Kenn Thomas

[Keith Millea]

The report by Thomas P Ehrhard is pieced together from declassified documents, so there's no new technology on display here, but a lot of fascinating detail on the relationship between the USAF and the various Intel agencies including the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office, and the funding routes that the projects took.

Drone on the range

Should Oregon skies welcome unmanned aerial vehicles?
By Camilla Mortensen

If a UAV testing area were opened up in Central Oregon, there wouldn't be any bombs falling from drones, Predator or otherwise. "They would not be dropping ordinances; it couldn't happen in the air space we're looking to create," says Roger Lee, EDCO director.

When the recession hit the east side of Oregon, Lee says, "There was a half a billion dollar industry here in manufacturing general aviation aircraft and components." There is less than a fifth of that today, he says. Collins Hemingway, chair of the aviation recruitment committee for EDCO, adds that at least two aircraft companies went bankrupt in the region. The industry got together, Lee says, and began meeting to figure out what could utilize the talent base that was still there. The UAV industry had the most promise, Hemingway says, and "what we'd like to see is getting some of our unemployed people back to work."

EDCO says a dozen companies have already said they would use the testing area and cites Northwest companies including Insitu, Boeing and Evergreen Aviation as all benefiting from a drone testing area.

There are benefits for Oregonians not in the aviation industry too, Hemingway says, echoing Batten's list of nonmilitary uses for drones. He says unmanned craft could be used in place of human pilots in high-risk situations such as tanker drops to put out forest fires. Mini UAVs, he says, can be used in orchard management.

Hemingway says the planes could also be used to patrol for invasive weeds. Ranchers could monitor fences with unmanned craft; law enforcement could patrol for drugs. "Anything you can practically think of when it comes to getting information," Lee adds.

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http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2011/05/19/coverstory.html