On Thursday, March 31, 2022, Her Majesty Queen Maxima of the Netherlands accompanied by the SER Chairwoman, Ms. Mariëtte Hamer, visited the company High Eye Unmanned Aviation in Dordrecht. High Eye designs and builds unmanned helicopters — also known as drones — which can be used for civil and military purposes. 

According to a High Eye press release the visit was:

“…about regional cooperation to better match education and the labour market, support for SME entrepreneurs and the local vision of small and medium-sized enterprises and the government. The Committee is working on advice to improve services to entrepreneurs.

Queen Maxima and Mariëtte Hamer started with a short tour of the company given by Joost de Ruiter, CEO of High Eye. Joost de Ruiter spoke about the features of the Airboxer, its capabilities and applications. It was highlighted that the heavy fuel-driven Airboxer VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) UAV, is used to gather data from the sky in the Netherlands as well as internationally.

High Eye is one of the high-tech companies for which it is important to find and retain qualified personnel. The community of Dordrecht and the region of Drechtsteden, Alblasserdam, Dordrecht, Hardinxveld-Giessendam, Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Papendrecht, Sliedrecht and Zwijndrecht, have developed various initiatives to better connect education to the labor market.”