YUMA, AZ - The future of unmanned aviation is up in the air. Literally. Aviation experts are predicting about 30,000 drones of all shapes and sizes will be zipping through U.S. airspace by the year 2020.
Congress has directed the Federal Aviation Administration to set up six sites nationwide to safely introduce unmanned aviation into commercial airspace. Yuma has high hopes of becoming one of those six.
Julie Engel is the president and CEO of the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corporation.
"Yuma's very unique in the fact that we've been doing this for years for the Department of Defense. Technically, in our mind, in all the research we have done, we are one of the few sites that is ready. If we were announced today, tomorrow, testing could start," Engel says.
That's because Yuma already has many of the needed facilities and resources in place.
"We partner with Yuma Proving Grounds and YPG brings a unique aspect to it in the fact that not only do they have hot weather, but they also have the arctic region and then they have tropical as well," explains Engel.
That's right: arctic and tropical. YPG has testing resources in Alaska and South America. And Yuma has another impressive connection to the skies and beyond … NASA.
"With NASA's presence here, that's another relationship that exists in Yuma … The FAA has a relationship with NASA on the UAS, so we're excited that some of these things are already in place, we just need to nurture them and grow them," says Engel.
Applications for unmanned aircraft are wide and varied. Firefighters can spot and fight hard to reach wildfires. Oil companies can survey remote sections of pipeline and storage tanks. Agriculture, Yuma's number one economy, benefits as well. Farmers can check and spray their crops, all by remote control.
So what does all of this translate into for Yuma?
"It translates into jobs, absolutely. It translates to very good jobs. High wage jobs, it translates to medium-skill and low-skill jobs as well, depending on the final assembly. So what that does is create opportunities for all demographics in Yuma county," explains Engel.
Jobs are something Yuma desperately needs. Yuma currently has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.
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