Ohio Creates 100,000 Drone Jobs and $90 Billion Revenue

What is the Work of Drones?

Do you remember a time in which drones were either bees or human workers in dead-end jobs who were waiting for the weekend? New drones do other things.

Today, these devices are unmanned flying machines that deliver goods that include medicines, provide surveillance in war and crime zones, help with humanitarian aid, and aide with Civil Air Patrol search and rescue missions.

These flying machines can track endangered species to provide information on migration patterns that may help animal scientists to save whole wildlife populations. They can also help look for missing people, like wandering senior citizens and even criminals.

Such information collected by drones may lead to development of technologies and husbandry methods of curbing beehive colony collapse and Monarch buttery decline in America and Mexico. Why should we care? The bees and butterflies are pollinators of many plants in the world and without these insects, our food supplies would be drastically limited.

University Development of Flying Machines Without Pilots

The Ohio State University was chosen in 2015 as one of only 15 universities in America to design and develop new forms of drones and new uses for drone technology.

Ohio had over 1,200 aerospace manufacturing companies in that year and many more now.

$90 Billion Revenue and 100,000 New Jobs by 2025

The FAA has written new rules for flying drones that weigh less than 55 pounds and this specifically involves flying them in civilian airspace.

The Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International believes that adding these machines into the civilian arena can offer

• 2,700 jobs by 2025 in Ohio
• 100,000 jobs nationwide
• $82 billion of revenue stream
• Many sources estimate $90 billion in revenues by 2025.

Ohio is the first US State in which companies have used drones for bridge inspections, mapping, and precision agriculture.

Other Frequent Uses for Unmanned Aviation Devices

• Ambulance drones with built-in defibrillators.
• Document delivery during conferences.
• Tracking and counting groups of sea lions in Alaska.
• Tracking down wildlife poachers.
• Monitoring sporting events.
• Search and Rescue - Looking for victims of avalanches, forest fires, boat capsizes, building collapses and similar events as well as man-made disasters like war events. This was confirmed by the American Red Cross in its April 2015 reports.
• Movie filming on location.
• Crop dusting and crop inspection.
• Counting and tracking herds of cattle.
• Oil rig and pipeline inspections.
• Food deliveries (for example, the Burrito Bomber from Darwin Aerospace)
• Amazon.com deliveries.
• Performing environmental and weather research.
• Monitoring activities on US Borders.

Dayton's Sinclair Community College and The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio held the first Unmanned Aerial Systems Academic Summit (UASAS) on August 24, 2015 at the Sinclair college campus.

Sinclair was chosen for its forward looking programs in engineering technologies and the fact that it is on the Aviation Heritage Trail. the home of flight in America.

Both institutions of higher learning are located in the Ohio Space Corridor, which extends from Cincinnati in the southwest corner of the state, up through the Dayton-Fairborn Market and on towards Columbus, Ohio's Capital.

Many of the private sector's aerospace businesses in this expanding region are part of the NASA Commercial Crew.

Part of the 2012 Drone Act required the FAA to fully integrate unmanned aircraft into the private sector and civilian airspace under the National Airspace System by September 2015.

• Home of the Wright Brothers and the Aviation Heritage Trail as well as the UASF National Museum, Ohio has provided 24 astronauts to NASA, with private sector astronaut in training at this writing.
• Many local aerospace companies are in the NASA Commercial Crew, including Lockheed Martin. At least 130,000 people are employed by aerospace businesses in the state. At least 10 Ohio universities offer a PhD program in aerospace.
• Astronaut and Senator John Glenn led the new Ohio State University College of Public Affairs at age 94. He was the lone survivor of the Mercury 7 Astronauts until his death in late 2016.
• NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland brings over $1 billion to Ohio every year. That center is working on teleportation and breaking the speed of light. among other projects. Non-NASA research centers are under construction in Dayton and Cincinnati.
• Ohio's Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.
• Dayton was the center of research for the US Army Air Corps during WWII and for the USAF from that era forward. Wright Patterson Air Force Base brings $5 billion annually into Ohio.

• Applied Optimization - Dayton
• Azimuth Corporation: Dayton
• Boeing Company: Heath
• Design Knowledge: Dayton/Fairborn
• General Dynamics: Dayton
• Georgia Tech Research Institute: Fairborn
• Illumination Science: Dublin/Columbus
• Lockheed Martin: Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Springfield
• Ohio Aerospace Institute: Dayton
• Phoenix Support: Niles
• Raytheon: Fairborn
• Spectra Research: Dayton
• Service Engineering: Dayton

High Demand Jobs in Drone Related Work

At least 600 job openings related to working with drones or UAVs were posted across the Internet for the United States in April 2015. The highest demand job titles are:

1. Avionics Technician I, II and III
2. Cyber Systems Operations Specialist
3. Cyber Transport Systems Specialist
4. 15W UAV Operator
5. Network Administrator
6. Engineer Software 3
7. Mechanical Engineer
8. Systems Administrator
9. Ground Control Station Technician
10. LiDAR Processor/Analyst
11. Air Vehicle Operator/Mission Commander
12. RT Logic DSP Systems Engineer
13. Quality Assurance Manager

Largest Companies Hiring UAV Workers

1. Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation
2. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
3. Boeing/Insitu - NASA Commercial Crew
4. Northrop Grumman - NASA Commercial Crew
5. Bowhead Holding Company
6. Google
7. Lockheed Martin - NASA Commercial Crew
8. Whitney, Bradley and Brown
9. Leidos
10. L-3 Communications
11. University of Antelope Valley
12. URS Corporation
13. US National Guard - Federal Government, military

Sources

• Batterson, Paul. http://www.hivelocitymedia.com/features/OhioAerospace081513.aspx Hivelocitymedia.com; 2013. Ohio's aerospace industry: the $8 billion powerhouse. www.hivelocitymedia.com/features/OhioAerospace081513.aspx Retrieved September 19, 2016.
• Inglish, P. Attendance at Active Air Force Civil Air Patrol educator training weeks in Michigan and Ohio; August 2013, August 2017, August 2018.