Bingen, Washington — Orchard Town That Builds Drones

Bingen sits in the Columbia Gorge among orchards, rail lines and world-class wind.

Then aerospace engineering joined the economy.

Insitu grew there from a small aviation company into a major producer of unmanned aircraft systems.

Its technology began with an idea for using unmanned planes to help locate tuna at sea.

The concept evolved into aircraft capable of long endurance and shipboard operation, including the ScanEagle platform.

That gives tiny Bingen a global aerospace footprint without erasing the older landscape around it.

Fruit still grows on nearby slopes.

Trains still follow the Columbia.

And engineers build aircraft that do not need pilots sitting inside them.