Center Overview

Sinclair College’s National UAS Training and Certification Center, located in Dayton, Ohio, represents the culmination of a focused vision dedicated to creating one of the most comprehensive and pioneering facilities for the advancement of UAS training and applied research support.

Since 2008, Sinclair College has been at the forefront of UAS innovation, creating partnerships, developing leading curriculum, and investing significantly to establish a nationally prominent program dedicated to meeting the workforce needs of the growing UAS industry. Created through total investments of more than $10 million, Sinclair’s UAS Center provides students and researchers with the ability to work with new UAS technologies in an immersive and hands-on environment.

The facility supports research, development, and training on vehicles and components through advanced unmanned and manned simulation, sensors, avionics, maintenance, advanced manufacturing and rapid prototyping, data analytics, and wind tunnel labs.

Additionally, indoor flight training and testing is made possible in both the UAS Indoor Flight Range and the custom built UAS Indoor Flying Pavilion. Sinclair actively operates UAS in the National Airspace System, with the most flights of any entity in Ohio since 2014, through 13 Certificates of Authorization, a Section 333 Exemption, and through operations under the Part 107 regulations.

Sinclair strives to remain at the cutting-edge of UAS training and applied research support through collaborations with leading UAS organizations in academia, government, and industry. The college is honored to be included as an partner in both the Federal Aviation Administration ASSURE UAS Center of Excellence and National Science Foundation Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems, maintains active Educational Partnership Agreements focused on UAS with the Air Force Research Laboratory and the Air Force Institute of Technology, and is engaged in applied UAS research with NASA enabled through a Space Act Agreement.

Sinclair also founded and continues to sponsor the Journal of Unmanned Aerial Systems, a peer-reviewed publication that serves the public as an open-access online resource enabling the development and distribution of knowledge for the UAS industry.