{"id":13740,"date":"2019-09-11T21:41:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T21:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/?p=13740"},"modified":"2019-09-12T15:12:26","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T15:12:26","slug":"nasao-recognizes-ncdot-drone-program-and-director-bobby-walston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/state-news\/north-carolina\/nasao-recognizes-ncdot-drone-program-and-director-bobby-walston\/%20","title":{"rendered":"NASAO Recognizes NCDOT Drone Program and Director Bobby Walston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The North Carolina Department of Transportation was honored this\nweek for its pioneering use of drones to respond to hurricanes and deliver\nmedical supplies. The National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO)\nnamed NCDOT\u2019s drone program as the 2019 Most Innovative State Program at its\nannual convention in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_3787edit.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13741\" width=\"335\" height=\"216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_3787edit.jpg 716w, https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_3787edit-300x194.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 335px) 100vw, 335px\" \/><figcaption><em>Bobby Walston thanks NASAO and its members for the recognition. Photo courtesy of Midwest Flyer Magazine.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Also Tuesday, NCDOT Director of Aviation Bobby Walston was honored with NASAO\u2019s Kenneth A. Rowe Ambassador for Aviation Award, in recognition of his career contributions to and advocacy for aviation in North Carolina and the nation. &#8220;We&#8217;re beyond grateful to have won these honors,&#8221; said Walston. &#8220;Our office has worked hard over these last few years to build a forward-thinking, innovative program that will benefit North Carolina&#8217;s people and its transportation system for years to come.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NASAO honored NCDOT for its use of drones to respond to\nHurricanes Florence, Michael and Dorian, and the delivery of food and medical\nsupplies. The NCDOT used drones after hurricanes to monitor and document\nflooding, road conditions and traffic impacts in a way that had never been done\nbefore. In March of 2019, the state agency helped facilitate the first ever\nfor-revenue drone delivery service in the nation, with UPS and Matternet\ndelivering medical supplies and samples to WakeMed Hospital in Raleigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Already in 2019, NCDOT\u2019s drone program has won awards from\nthe Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Southern\nAssociation of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The agency is a\nfinalist for another award from the American Association of State Highway and\nTransportation Officials. That honor will be decided by a public vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The North Carolina Department of Transportation was honored this week for its pioneering use of drones to respond to hurricanes and deliver medical supplies. The National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO) named NCDOT\u2019s drone program as the 2019 Most Innovative State Program at its annual convention in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday night. Also Tuesday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-carolina"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13740"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13749,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13740\/revisions\/13749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}