Quick Takes (v26): Drone Wins and Losses

Quick Takes

Have you heard of the NUAIR Alliance?  If you pay attention to progress being made on drones in upstate and Central New York, you might be familiar with it. Here's what the Alliance is all about, from their website:

The NUAIR Alliance is a New York based not-for-profit coalition of more than 200 private and public entities and academic institutions working together to operate and oversee Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) testing in New York, Massachusetts, and Michigan. Headquartered in Syracuse NY, NUAIR supports the NY UAS Test Site at Griffiss International Airport in Rome, NY, one of just seven FAA-designated UAS test sights in the United States. We are at the forefront of public policy development, commercialization, and integration of UAS technology.

Rome is a key site in the drone world, as we learn from this article in the Rome Sentinel last fall.

Griffiss, with high-definition air traffic surveillance, state-of-the art data collection and analysis capabilities, is the foundation for testing and certification of drone detect-and-avoid systems to meet future FAA standards and support the safe integration of commercial drones into US airspace. 

It's also home to two projects that are important locally and nationally: U-SAFE, to "further catalyze and expand the economic opportunities being created" by the UAS industry, and NUSTAR, which "will offer independent performance and safety benchmarking testing for drones and drone related products."  Both should help bring more drone activity to the area.

So, too, will the 'drone corridor' which will eventually stretch 50 miles or so from Rome to Syracuse, the partnership with NASA, and the investment of millions of dollars by the state. As our Sonofa Gov Andrew Cuomo noted in September,

The development of the drone corridor is expected to unlock a trillion-dollar global industry and attract businesses, development and new drone technology to the state, specifically in Central New York. Dividends are already paying off, as regionally-based SRC Inc. plans to initially hire 50 engineers following its announcement of a $65M contract with the US Army to develop a system to detect and defeat small drones. Additionally, the company plans to add up to 1000 new hires over the next five years thanks in large part to the state's investment in the UAS industry which is working to create an ecosystem that will attract companies to CNY. 

Sheesh -- with all of that energy and investment from educational institutions, businesses, and both the state and federal government, you would think that our area would have been a perfect spot to test package delivery drones with Amazon, right?

Wrong.

Maybe it's because it's the feds, and we all know how much the president can't stand Amazon, or maybe it was just bad luck, or maybe it was a poor proposal, but we were passed over by the US Department of Transportation to be one of 10 national test sites for drone technology. Amazon had teamed up with NYS and NUAIR on the proposal, but in a decision called "highly confounding" by John Katko, who represents Syracuse in Congress,

... federal official instead selected 10 other locations as test sites for a program launched by president Donald Trump last year to speed the safe integration of drones into the national airspace. The ten projects approved by Trump's administration include other high-profile technology companies - such as Google parent Alphabet and Uber - that will team up in public-private partnerships. 

Katko said he'll try and get to the bottom of it, and of course there's always a chance we'll get picked if there's a next time. Or if we partner with someone other than Amazon, maybe?

We do have some good news on drones, though.

The Syracuse Fire Department will use drones, when it's appropriate, to help with firefighting efforts. Potential uses could be identifying hot spots in fires, or fighting fires in large commercial buildings where it's hard to get a good view of where issues are.

And, Beak and Skiff, the apple people, are the first in the world to pollinate apple trees using drones; they tested the technology on a small section of their 300 acres, with help from Dropcopter, a local start up company.  The firm had previously used their technology on cherry and almond trees, but never before on apple trees.  The company's co-founder, Adam Fine, sees a lot of potential for drones in agriculture.

We know that agriculture is one of the most significant points of entry for the commercial use of drones, and it holds the most opportunity to impact the industry and economy.

If you ask me, there's a whole lot more potential with this than there is with delivering packages to my porch - and probably much more benefit as well. It will be fun to see how things turn out.