The soon-to-be-launched commercial drones industry will create more than 2,000 jobs in Georgia during its first three years while generating an economic impact of $379 million, an aerospace leader predicted Tuesday.
The Georgia Center for Innovation for Aerospace, an arm of the state Department of Economic Development, has been working since 2009 to lay the groundwork for commercializing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Steve Justice, the center’s director, told attendees at a briefing on drones held at the Atlanta office of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP.
For example, the center has been involved with The University of Georgia and Middle Georgia State College on a project testing camera-mounted UAVs to monitor the health of crops in farm fields.
That work has reached the “tipping point” between research and commercialization now that the Federal Aviation Administration is taking the first steps toward legalizing the commercial use of drones in the U.S., Justice said.
With formal rules governing the industry still a couple of years away, the FAA is expected to begin approving applications for exemptions from the federal ban on commercial drones on a case-by-case basis by the end of the year.
With the world’s busiest airport in Atlanta and both the film and agricultural industries clamoring for the go-ahead to use UAVs, Georgia has a chance to capitalize on the emerging UAV industry, said Mark Dombroff, a McKenna Long partner and head of the firm’s Unmanned Aerial Services (UAS) practice.
“I think Georgia has the opportunity to step forward and become the premier UAS environment in the nation,” Dombroff said.
