The National Association of Tower Erectors hosted key stakeholders from federal government agencies, industry and media at the inaugural NATE UAS Operations “Field Day Showcase” on Tuesday, Oct. 9 in Gainesville, Virginia, near the Washington, D.C. Beltway.
 
The event was held at a Crown Castle tower site. Crown Castle operates and leases more than 40,000 cell towers across the United States. At the event, attendees watched live flight demonstrations conducted by ETAK Systems; Talon Aerolytics; Ehresmann Engineering; and B+T Group. 
 
Attendees were also able visit with drone and aviation subject matter experts about the transformative impact this technology is having on the wireless industry.
 
“Crown Castle was excited to partner with NATE in order to make this UAS Showcase experience a success,” says Robert McCoy, manager of quality assurance at Crown Castle. “Drones are tailor-made for the communications infrastructure industry, and the demonstration flights that were performed at our Crown Castle cell tower site only served to reinforce the fact that the use cases for this technology continue to evolve at a rapid pace.”