Video—NASA Glenn director visits region, Wright State

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – As the Dayton region continues to make strides in becoming the nation’s leader in Unmanned Aerial Systems, local officials are reaching out statewide to help accomplish that goal.

Watch the video of their visit to Wright State University here.

For the first time, Jim Free, Director of NASA Glenn Research Center got a first hand look at what the Dayton region’s aerospace companies and institutions have to offer.

As part of a day long visit, Free met with local leaders looking for better ways to share UAS research and technology.

“We do work with AFRL now and to further that trying to get knowledge of our capabilities at NASA Glenn and understanding the capabilities here that when you weave them together it’s a great message for the state of Ohio,” Free said.

State Representative Rick Perales, co-chair of Ohio’s Aerospace Caucus, hopes that shared message will strengthen Ohio’s position in landing one of the FAA’s six, highly-coveted UAS test sites to be announced in December.

“With all these pieces coming together we’re clearly in the running for one of these test sites.” said Perales.

Jason Parker, director of Wright States Research Institute says having NASA on a resume would also go along way to landing the promising STEM student of tomorrow.

“I think we all have a lot of shared research interests both in the unmanned vehicle sector as well as in the human side of aerospace research,” he said.

Free said keeping people being educated and working in Ohio, and keeping high-tech jobs that really matter is the future of the country.

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