Amelia Fox
When you鈥檙e named for an aviation pioneer, perhaps you鈥檙e destined for flight.
聽Amelia Fox, assistant clinical professor in Mississippi State鈥檚 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, took her first discovery flight at age 13鈥攁nd hated it.
鈥淚 soon realized that I was shooting through the air in a big chunk of metal and knew right away that I was not going to be a pilot,鈥 she said.
While Fox鈥檚 undergraduate education in professional agriculture kept her feet firmly on the ground, her path to flight began in graduate school focusing on geographic information systems, or GIS, and remote sensing鈥攕kills that brought her from the Midwest to Mississippi to aid with the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill cleanup.
Fox decided to stay in Mississippi to pursue a doctoral degree in agronomy from 91传媒 where her imagination soared as she learned about early agricultural research and its connection to GIS and remote sensing technology. She sensed drones would do big things with GIS in the future and took the leap into this emerging field.
After graduating in 2015, she returned to her Washington state home to train with a chapter of the Bell Air Flyers, an organization affiliated with the Academy of Model Aeronautics. Undergoing rigorous training, Fox honed her skills and became a certified FAA remote pilot with the AMA and an FAA- and AMA-certified pilot instructor. 聽
Fox, from a multi-generational military family, said drones have been a part of the U.S. military for longer than one might think.
鈥淭he academy has trained drone pilots for the last hundred years,鈥 she said. 鈥淎nd yes, these aircraft have been around that long. In World War II, Norma Jeane Dougherty鈥攂etter known as Marilyn Monroe鈥攂uilt drones for the U.S. Army.鈥
The wings of opportunity soon led her back to her alma mater where she has had the chance to be a leader in the 91传媒鈥檚 precision ag program, developing and teaching the UAV curriculum. Fox has taught and expanded her unmanned flight course over the past five years, recently adding a classroom virtual reality drone experience that facilitates hands-on learning without the risk of damaging expensive equipment.
聽Fox鈥檚 years of teaching flight instruction have inspired her latest research project, in which she partners with department colleague Jagman Dhillon and faculty from the University of Texas-Arlington to assess why student pilots gravitate toward a particular type of UAV.
鈥淭here are two common types of unmanned aircraft: fixed-wing planes and rotocopters,鈥 she said. 鈥淪tudents usually prefer one type of aircraft, and we have found that certain personality traits drive that preference.鈥
Fox found that students usually labeled 鈥渋nattentive鈥 typically enjoy flying fixed-wing planes.
鈥淭hese students can see everything at once: the sky, ground, direction and the attitude (alignment) of the plane鈥攖hey see it all while moving their hands at the same time,鈥 she said. 鈥淲hile highly focused and academically stronger students gravitate toward the rotocopters.鈥
This Independence Day, Fox celebrates the birthday of her husband, a veteran who flew for the U.S. Navy. Fox鈥檚 children and her father also served in the military. Now a V.A. caregiver, she thinks a lot about preparing the next generation of both civilian and military pilots.
鈥淭he commercial and military flight corps are already using a psychometric approach鈥攖esting skills, knowledge and personality鈥攖o select pilots.鈥 she said. 鈥淚 think that our study shows that the aviation field needs a broad array of personalities who can team up and complement each other.鈥