In a buzz, the quadcopter takes off from the ground and weaves between cones. At the controls is Quentin, a student in a professional drone option program, a unique educational training in France that interests the military.
Eleven students from Louise Weiss High School in Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, an Alsatian town of 5,000 people at the foot of the Vosges mountains, are the first to inaugurate this specialty as part of their professional diploma in Ciel (Cybersecurity, IT and Networks, Electronics).
In the electronics laboratory, the teenagers are absorbed in various activities. Two of them are working on a test bench to study lift force.
The goal is “to gradually increase the engine speed to determine at what speed the drone is likely to take off,” explains teacher Jean-Marc Bour.
Eighteen-year-old Damien faces an S500 V2 kit: “I have to assemble it from A to Z to understand how to build a drone, what materials we use, what motor, what battery, etc.,” he lists. The objective is to learn to “create it ourselves.”
The only girl in the class, Charlotte, is interested in a model of a ruined tower reconstructed in 3D using drone-captured images.
During the training, the young girl learned a number of rules related to using drones, such as “there are certain areas where you are not allowed to fly and you need authorization.”
By including a drone option in this professional diploma, the high school aimed to create an innovative curriculum that does not exist elsewhere by using the drone as a tool, explains the principal, François Ginoux.
The school has partnered with the Air Force. Army instructors have taught drone piloting to the students and shown them around air bases in the region.
– Lucrative Sectors –
These are skills that “interest” the military, explains Pascal Fischer, who heads the Air Force Regional Recruitment Center. “We need drones” for surveillance and security of military sites and trained individuals capable of “implementing countermeasures” against hostile drones.
The Army had 3,000 drones at the beginning of the year and will have 15,000 by the end of 2026.
“Our effort is to stay at the technological forefront and have each soldier be a drone operator,” emphasized General Philippe de Montenon, commander of the land operational force.
Among the Louise-Weiss students, 17-year-old Nolan plans a military career and hopes his drone knowledge will be “an additional, unique asset.” While using a drone as a weapon is “not the goal,” the teenager envisions using it for reconnaissance or scouting operations.
Apart from the military, “other sectors are also very promising,” says Principal Ginoux, mentioning companies that conduct thermal leak detection on their facilities or the agricultural sector.
Twenty-year-old Alban considers drone technology more as a hobby. “But through the partnership with the military, I learned that it also has practical applications in the field. I found that quite interesting,” the young man testifies.
Principal Ginoux states that the drone option has generated a “real renewal of interest” for the Ciel professional diploma, even having to refuse some students at the beginning of the year due to high demand.
His goal is to make this training program sustainable and potentially expand it. “It would be interesting for the National Education to adopt this experience and extend it to several high schools in France,” the principal believes, emphasizing that to date, there is “no equivalent program” available.
Published on May 5th at 9:37 AM, AFP.
