{"id":390722,"date":"2023-05-03T06:06:07","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T20:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=390722"},"modified":"2023-05-03T06:06:07","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T20:06:07","slug":"bwa-valqari-share-plans-for-drone-technology-in-the-nmi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/bwa-valqari-share-plans-for-drone-technology-in-the-nmi\/","title":{"rendered":"BWA, Valqari share plans for drone technology in the NMI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bella Wings Aviation and Chicago-based Valqari Drone Delivery shared some of their plans to bring drone technology services to the CNMI during a presentation at the Tuesday meeting of the Saipan Rotary Club yesterday at the Hyatt Regency Saipan.<\/p>\n

Bella Wings Aviation CEO and president Charlie Hermosa, Valqari Drone Delivery founder and chief executive officer Ryan Walsh told club members that they are on island to kick off the first phase of their project.<\/p>\n

Hermosa said their team is most remembered for their drone show during the Pacific Mini Games last year, but their company\u2019s mission is to be able to provide access and connect the islands using drone technology, with deliveries of merchandise, especially medicine, into areas that are normally inaccessible.<\/p>\n

Hermosa was on island just two weeks ago and gave a presentation at the CNMI House of Representatives. In March, Rep. Manny Gregory T. Castro (Ind-Saipan), who chairs the House Committee on Education, along with Diego M. Sablan, special assistant for the Substance Abuse, Addiction and Rehabilitation, toured the BWA facilities in Guam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we’re doing here is we’re are going to officially sign the [memorandum of understanding] to be able to develop what we call \u2018Phase 1 of the manufacturing part of what we think is the infrastructure that is needed here within the regions that are going to develop this joint technology,\u201d Hermosa said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bella Wings Aviation president and CEO Charlie Hermosa and Valqari Drone Delivery founder Ryan Walsh pose with members of Saipan’s Rotary Club after BWA and Valqari’s presentation during the Rotary’s luncheon yesterday at the Hyatt Regency in Garapan. (CHRYSTAL MARINO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He said they are partnering with Valqari and using their technology. \u201cSo we [Valqari and BWA] ventured into a partnership agreement that we are going to manufacture their [Valqari] technology here on Saipan. We are here to sign that agreement today. It’s a huge and historic for us. I strongly believe and I\u2019m all in for this\u2014that what we need is a spark to be able to create a tech hub on this side of the world, and there’s no reason why we can’t do it.\u201d Hermosa said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026We tried this months\u2019 back when we had the hardware and infrastructure…but we did not have enough folks to be able to give us what we need,\u201d he said. To address this lack, Hermosa disclosed that they would be working with the Northern Marianas Technical Institute to have a course to educate and train interested young residents on the manufacturing side of drones.<\/p>\n

Starting with elementary and high school students, he hopes \u201cto get them engaged in the technology they’re developing and then get them into a profession…through a trade’s program or college program. \u2026Young people will learn how to operate drones, flight characteristics, coding, and engineering through the college program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hermosa shared that they already have a curriculum, and they did it with the University of Guam and now they want to do it here. This Thursday, he said, they are launching the 12-week Junior Drone Program in Guam. They could only accept 14 out of 200 applicants, all of whom are aged 7 to 12. \u201cSo at least we’re starting and sparking up an interest to let them know that we are creating\u2026something that would allow them to stay on island. That is our goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsh said they are excited to work with Hermosa and the CNMI. \u201cHe’s done incredible things for this industry and it’s not often getting the spotlight it deserves, so we’re really excited to take the partnership we’ve had for a number of years and extend it. To provide Bella Wings\u2019 with our exclusive licensing for our technology…”<\/p>\n

Some of the training in Phase 1 will start people off with cutting and designing, to soldering, and putting the drone units together. Hermosa said that education \u201cis going to be the prime component of what we are going to do. \u2026We are trying to create an ecosystem that starts out with education.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about funding, Hermosa replied, \u201c\u2026When we came here, we never asked for any type of funding. We wanted to actually do it from the ground up.\u201d Later, he said the delivery service will have a monthly subscription fee. \u201cBut we also think that there’s a lot of programs out there that can actually fund this for areas that are not accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hermosa also disclosed that they are looking to also have the drones deliver packages to a person\u2019s doorstep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bella Wings Aviation and Chicago-based Valqari Drone Delivery shared some of their plans to bring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":390791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[257,70],"class_list":["post-390722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-nmi","tag-technology-2-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}