we are back now as promised with one of the hottest gifts this Christmas drones being unwrapped today all across the country so many in fact that this week the FAA launched a new drone safety campaign they're increasingly popular for personal use and a lot of companies Amazon and Daum Domino's among them are talking about someday using drones to transform how they do business the FAA still has not given the go-ahead for widespread use but already thousands of would-be pilots are lining up and some leading aviation schools are stepping up to train them here's NBC's Tom Costello from movie chase scenes – aerial farmland surveys wildfires wildlife law enforcement package-delivery you name it the real drone invasion is still waiting on the FAA to set the rules I've got the ability to sit and hover and look at something for a while to make sure is this the person we're looking for but the nation's leading aviation schools are not waiting already training a new generation how to fly an unmanned aerial system or UAS when you're first learning how to fly this thing what's the biggest challenge I would say the biggest challenge is the positional awareness of the aircraft so whether it's fun towards you or whether it's flying away from you you have some different control and it's not just small models but bigger military sized drones as well class enrollments up more than 1,000 percent the hardest part for us and coping with it is how quickly the technology changes it's a generational shift here at embry-riddle which is tops additional piloting since 1926 now in just three years it's unmanned aviation major has grown from 11 students to more than two hundred a hundred colleges and universities now offer similar programs amid estimates of a hundred thousand jobs over the next 10 years junior Alexa Roman hopes she lands one of them it seems to be the wave of the future and especially with the military at the University of North Dakota quite a minute turning right on looks like 18th Street students who already have a commercial pilot's license are hoping to be among the first certified drone pilots the benefits that this industry will provide I think is just gonna be exponential it could start in just a few months when the FAA announces the rules on who's allowed to fly and where after that the sky could be the limit Tom Costello NBC News date