Arizona’s drone industry can do just fine without the feds

By Editorial boardThe Republic | azcentral.com

So what if the Federal Aviation Administration bypassed Arizona for one of six national drone-testing sites?

The designation would have been nice to have, but we can do just fine without it.

Sierra Vista Economic Development Foundation has secured a private airport north of town to help companies test commercial applications for unmanned aircraft. It doesn’t need the FAA’s blessing because the 160-acre airport already has the necessary airspace to safely handle the flights.

The Four Pillars site, which is not being publicly identified to protect companies’ privacy, will primarily test smaller drones that don’t fly any higher than 400 feet.

News about the site is traveling fast. A handful of clients already have signed up to test there, and inquiries have been streaming in from as far away as North Dakota, one of the states that secured an FAA test site.

This is good news for Arizona and its sizable aerospace industry, which industry analysts believe will gain more jobs and spending from unmanned aircraft than most states. With or without the FAA, plenty of drone manufacturers still see value here.

What’s happening behind the scenes is even more important. After the FAA deal fell through, Sierra Vista officials began working with other airports in Cochise County, the state’s universities and Mesa’s AZLabs to join their testing effort.

“There was no way we were going to let all that work just go away,” said Mignonne Hollis, the head of Sierra Vista’s economic organization who also led an industry group that helped draft the state’s FAA test-site proposal.

Though the space may be smaller than the statewide testing plan Arizona presented to the feds, it’s good to see so many of the state’s major drone players at the table. If Four Pillars is the success many think it will be, there’s no reason not to get Prescott and Yuma — the state’s other proposed FAA test sites — involved.

What Arizona needs most is a unified, statewide effort to shore up its changing aerospace industry, not dozens of similar efforts occurring in a vacuum.

http://www.azcentral.com/opinions/articles/20140126arizona-drones-test-site-editorial.html