Oregon’s ‘Silicon Sky’ set to soar with FAA drone zone (Q&A)
Jonathan Evans loves to fly.
He spent nine years as a Black Hawk pilot in the U.S. Army, was a pilot for Evergreen Helicopters in McMinnville, flies part time for Eugene-based Life Flight Network, and is co-founder of the Portland-based drone software developer Rising Tide Innovations.
RTI employs five. Founded a year ago, the company is developing a software platform that connects users to aerial sensing services that can help farmers increase crop yields, firefighters track the movement of a blaze, governments monitor environmental disasters and conservationists gather data on animal behavior. Its software also delivers what Evans calls TurboTax-style services by streamlining best practices for pilot and airline certification, and operating procedures, expediting what can be a tedious regulatory process.
His company and dozens of others connected with the drone industry are set to benefit from the inclusion of Oregon-based test ranges among the six unmanned aircraft test sites selected by the Federal Aviation Administration. We talked to Evans about how the test ranges could boost the industry. The interview has been edited.
Portland Business Journal: How significant is it that the FAA selected a bid that includes test ranges in Oregon (the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs reservation, Pendleton and Tillamook)?
Jonathan Evans: It’s significant that the FAA recognized Portland and Oregon as a hub for what I’m calling the Silicon Sky. There is a unique nexus here of aviation heritage —Columbia Helicopters, Evergreen Helicopters, Boeing and the unmanned aviation companies centered around Insitu — and modern computer and hardware technology anchored by Intel.
PBJ: What will it mean for companies in the unmanned aviation industry already doing business here?
Evans: Evans: The FAA has a roadmap they are implementing toward an umbrella set of professional regulations for the entire national airspace system (NAS) and the entities that fly in it. The first increment that’s already taking place is to allow public entities like fire departments and universities to apply for Certificates of Authorization to operate drones professionally in their specific area of operations under a prescribed set of conditions. It’s not laid out by the FAA, but our hope is that in lieu of having air space regulations for the entire country, this incremented regulatory process will become more localized, streamlined, and efficient. The real boon for local industry is that the FAA has recognized the region as a hub of innovation for this very promising technology, which it truly is.
PBJ: Which will speed up everything, allowing the industry to expand more quickly, right?
Evans: That’s right.
PBJ: What might the test range sites mean for job creation?
Evans: I’ll leave it to the economic development people to figure out the actual job numbers, but I can say it will mean more information-age jobs. We’ll have tech centers around these ranges where the regulatory process is already nicely harmonized with market innovations to allow for rapid prototyping, flight testing, and demonstration. You have hardware folks building the actual vehicles, and then you have companies like ours that are part of the information ecosystem spawned by a network of aerial sensors. What people refer to as a “drone” is actually a very sophisticated aerial robot at the nexus of information and the physical world.
PBJ: What do you see as the next wave of drone technology and commercial use?
Evans: There are two dimensions to aerial robotics. The first wave I see that’s already very much in early adoption is using aerial sensors to feed information networks. It’s zooming past Google Earth, where the data is at least six months old and the highest resolution is somewhere around a meter. Drones represent the ability to serve the aerial perspective in near real time in exquisite detail. The second wave is in line with Jeff Bezos‘ Amazon announcement of being able to move things around. Bezos’ announcement (that Amazon is exploring the use of drones for delivery) was great for the industry. The engineering for his vision of moving packages under 5 pounds around within a 30-minute radius is pretty much already realized, or will be soon. The regulatory framework will certainly need to evolve further to allow for it, however. And truly autonomous operations, with no pilot in the loop at all? That would be another technological era entirely.
