Transportation Boosting GDP - Drone and Flying Car Technology
Revolutionising Industries with Drones and Flying Cars
Thank you for reading, to discover how we can help direct a new future filled with drones and flying cars, making our lives safer and simpler. Enjoy this week’s article and please feel free to contact me jonathan@skytrades.io
The drone and flying car economy has a massive unrealised upside. How we choose to access that will have profound effects on growth in global GDP and who gets to benefit from it.
Drone Utilisation
Real estate specialists employ drones to capture aerial footage of luxury properties. Others utilise them for photography, like capturing surfers in action, monitoring farmland in the Dakotas, and enhancing vineyard production. Current use cases extend to diverse sectors such as movies, sports, mining, oil and gas production, and construction. All of these have commercial viability but the breakout use of drones for everyday delivery needs is not yet in scaled operation.
What’s the bridge that gets us from current narrow commercial uses to more decentralised multi-billion dollar ones?
The Silicon Valley chapter of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), asserts that the potential for economic growth in the drone industry is immense.
Jobs and Dollars for Your Town
The AUVSI estimates that integrating drones into U.S. airspace could boost the economy by at least $13.6 billion within the next 36 months.
The estimated economic benefit could exceed $82 billion by 2025, potentially creating more than 70,000 new jobs, including 34,000 positions in manufacturing, within the initial three years. AUVSI predicts the addition of 100,000 jobs within a decade.
Significant investments have already been made in the drone industry, estimated in the region of $20 billion and the majority of this has been into areas which don’t overcome the main problem that the industry needs solved. Permissioned air space.
In addition to large investments, individual entrepreneurs and small business owners are actively leveraging drone technology to expand their existing operations or venture into new markets.
The cost of drones has substantially decreased over the years, making them more accessible to a broader range of users. 3D Robotics, a drone manufacturer led by former Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, has already sold tens of thousands of drones, and they are set to release a new model called IRIS for consumers at an affordable price of around $750.
The cost reduction is primarily due to the availability of components such as global positioning systems, gyroscopes, and accelerometers, which have become more affordable due to mass production driven by the smartphone industry.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global medical drone market size alone is expected to reach $1.4 billion by 2028 with a CAGR of 28% between 2021 to 2028.
Farmers, Movies and Medicine
Agriculture presents significant opportunities for drone usage due to the minimal human presence on large farms. The Dakota Precision Ag Center utilises drones to collect agricultural data that aids farmers in optimizing crop productivity by monitoring crops, and cattle, and facilitating efficient watering and fertilizer application. DRNK Wines employs drones to monitor grapevines in his vineyard, enabling them to make informed decisions about harvesting and estimating crop sizes.
Drones have also found applications in the entertainment industry, with the Motion Picture Association of America advocating for their use in filmmaking. Another notable application is search and rescue operations.
In medical products from blood plasma to vaccinations, Zipline has been servicing parts of Africa with great success. The African countries they operate in have a very different system of property laws and rights than the US or other common law jurisdictions which has allowed them to fly with the permission of the governments alone. Property ownership is not established in the same way as in the US. The countries include Rwanda, Nigeria, The Ivory Coast, Ghana and Kenya.
Regulation
Concerns have been raised about the pace of regulation in the US, which has been suggested could give a competitive advantage to other countries such as Japan, Canada, the U.K., France, and Australia. France, for example, has established a drone operator training school, with operators subsequently signing service contracts with companies in various industries.
Brilliantly drafted and dazzling over-regulation based on the French, Kenyan or Nigerian systems is not what will send this industry stratospheric and catapult the US to the forefront of this industry - the granting of permission to use air space by the air rights owners to drone and air taxi companies will, through SkyTrades marketplace.
Flying Cars & Drone Infrastructure
Developers of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft, also known as air taxis, are making strides towards commercial operations as early as 2024. The expansion of this mode of transportation will necessitate the establishment of numerous vertiports, many of which will be located in downtown areas, to handle the increase in air traffic.
A vertiport is an area that can support electrical Verticle Take Off and Landing vehicles (eVTOL) during flight operations, somewhat like a helipad.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has recently issued guidelines for eVTOL operations and is encouraging states and cities to start planning the required infrastructure. According to a report by the Mineta Transportation Institute, governments are lagging in policy development.
Policy
With policy comes over-regulation, too many cooks and crooks vying for a slice of the pie for the disbenefit of the public. The eVTOL industry presents various challenges for city officials due to its evolving nature. Engaging in conversations at the national, state, and local levels with non-traditional aviation stakeholders such as city planners and air rights owners is essential. The successful implementation of urban air mobility requires coordination with communities.
By 2030, the first phase of urban air mobility will be operational in densely populated metropolitan areas like Dallas, Central Florida, Miami, Los Angeles, and others facing acute congestion issues as long as the air rights owners are in the eco-system.
Drone and eVTOL technologies will be employed in various ways. On-demand mobility within cities and between cities, freight transportation, emergency medical services, law enforcement, and firefighting services can all benefit from these advancements. Additionally, these technologies can enhance connectivity for smaller communities by connecting them to larger transportation hubs.
Air taxis will not replace public transit; they are distinct products that can complement each other. Integration between air taxis and mass transit will be crucial, especially for the first and last mile of a journey, as passengers will need ground transportation from vertiports to their final destinations.
Property
Landowners and small businesses can participate in operating the system, using their airspace in the first instance. Further uses such as land for vertiports, flight operations, charging stations, and maintenance to boost their incomes, like renting a room on Airbnb but without the hassle of having anyone in your home.
As the industry evolves it is essential to think big and see what this new dawn of transportation can bring us. SkyTrades is doing just that.
Texas Flying Cars
Volatus Infrastructure, a player in the field of advanced air mobility (AAM), has announced its plans to incorporate a vertiport into the "Green Airport" project at Greenport International Airport (GIA) near Austin, Texas. The company has also secured strategic agreements with eVTOL manufacturers and will serve as the exclusive vertiport provider for EVFly, an eVTOL fleet management company.
Each Volatus vertiport will benefit from eVTOL traffic management services offered by Embraer's Eve Air Mobility and will be equipped to facilitate drone delivery services. The company has also joined forces with real estate firms like JLL to expand its footprint across the United States. The Greenport vertiport is expected to commence operations in early 2024.
Greenport International Airport is a sustainable airport project being developed in Bastrop County, Texas, approximately 17 miles outside Austin. The airport, spanning 2,600 acres, aims to operate entirely off-grid while catering to large business jets and AAM aircraft. It boasts a 10,000-foot runway and substantial hangar space spanning 2.9 million square feet. The surrounding Greenport International Technology Center, encompassing 2,800 acres, will serve as a corporate campus with extensive data centre space and research and development facilities.
Air Taxis from Germany to China
German air taxi startup, Lilium, has secured $150 million from investors. Half of the funding comes from existing Chinese investor Tencent, with the remaining half led by Berlin-based venture capital firm Earlybird. Other investors include UVC Partners, BIT Capital, and Frank Thelen.
This funding will support Lilium until its next major milestone, the first manned flight set for autumn 2024. The company aims to finance itself primarily through customer down payments after that. Lilium's valuation has declined by 90% since its listing on Nasdaq two years ago.
The recent investment is a positive step due to Lilium's low valuation and the imminent first flight. The company's unique drive system is touted to utilise 30 tiltable rotors, enabling vertical take-off, landing, and longer flight distances than competitors.
The drone and flying car industry is the next step in the history of our transportation systems. Each day we delay their application more people are put at a serious disadvantage. Missed blood plasma to sick patients, a delayed organ delivery to a waiting recipient. Life-saving medicine to a sick child in their home forcing families to travel adding costs and discomfort. Another unnecessary road death and pollutants spewing into the air from too many cars and trucks in the streets delivering our packages and food.
We must do better.