North Carolina, and specifically Winston-Salem’s Smith Reynolds Airport, has just the right altitude, terrain and other characteristics to become the research and development hub for UAS manufacturer Olaeris. That could translate into along with hundreds – and maybe thousands over time – of high-paying jobs. But company officials say that opportunity will be lost in the next few weeks if state officials don’t act.
Olaeris, which makes UAS focused on emergency response and public safety functions, announced last December that it had chosen North Carolina over 19 other states as the location of its headquarters, and since then has settled on Smith Reynolds as its first choice of site, according to founder and CEO Ted Lindsley. According to company projections, its operation would grow from 30 employees in its first year to 150 in five years, and the total statewide economic impact from operations, investments, supply chain purchases and other activities could pass $128 million in that time.
Olaeris officials have been working with public safety agencies over the past two years making plans for how a statewide, centrally controlled network of unmanned vehicles could provide a valuable new response tool during hurricanes or other emergencies. Olaeris’ technology is designed with ducted rather than open rotors that the company says are safer and less prone to failure than typical drones, and the company has also worked closely with the ACLU on usage guidelines meant to protect privacy rights.
Not just Olaeris but the entire drone industry needs a home, and Lindsley said North Carolina’s combination of geophysical characteristics and disaster-prone geography has given it a strong head start in becoming that natural base. But foot-dragging by elected state officials and the Department of Commerce has squandered most of that lead, and other states including venture capital-rich California are rapidly closing the gap.
“It’s not great, it’s just OK,” Lindsley said of the drone-related legislation that passed out of the state legislature this session. “They seemed to want to take the easiest path, which was just to pass anything and then let the FAA figure it out… Ultimately, we believe that responsibility is the state’s and while now they’ve put a framework together, they’re not taking a leadership role. Eighteen months ago, North Carolina had a two-year lead over other states. Now you’ve got three to six months tops.”
Lindsley said at this point he needs a firm commitment from the state not for tax incentives – Olaeris doesn’t want any, he said – but rather that it will become the first state to implement an integrated UAV installation through a $6 million purchase contract with his company. That contract would provide for 15 UAVs to be deployed around the state to provide visual coverage to responders during future emergencies.
With such a commitment in place, Olaeris would be able to move forward with its plans for the Triad, and in the process of planning for the deployment state officials would by necessity begin to assemble a working regulatory infrastructure, he said. That would in turn encourage other UAV companies to move to the state too.
“If you want to lead this industry, you have to install actual operational equipment that can prove to the world you can do this, and that it can’t be done elsewhere,” he said.
Lindsley said he’s given the state’s Department of Commerce with whom Olaeris has been negotiating until September 25 to make the $6 million purchase commitment. He said the company has offered to be extremely flexible on the terms, including no payments due at all until a fully functioning and satisfactory system is delivered. After September 25, he said the company will make other plans.
“The first state that gets this all aligned properly will become the next Silicon Valley,” he said. “We’ve also got licensing agreements in India and Australia are our investors are asking my why we don’t just go there. I tell them if we can do this in the U.S. it will be easier to engage with the FAA and I’d really like this to be an American company. But at this point, basically we’ve got six weeks to pull something out of the hat.”
Department of Commerce officials declined to talk about Olaeris, saying it does not comment on or confirm negotiations with any particular company. But Kyle Snyder, director of the NextGen Air Transportation Center at N.C. State University who has worked to recruit Olaeris and other companies and educate state officials on the industry, said there has indeed been a lot of back-and-forth, and it isn’t over yet.
“I wouldn’t say the state is reluctant” to come to an agreement with Olaeris, he said, just that it’s a complicated undertaking. “We’re all just trying to figure out how it works so that both sides can get what they want, including the jobs and to be recognized as the industry leader. But it has to fit within the state’s programs, and they have to make sure they’re doing the due diligence. The process just takes longer than anybody wants.”
Source: Triad Business Journal
Let me get this straight. Ted is upset that NC won’t just give him a $6M contract for a technology that hasn’t been proven and that the FAA won’t let fly and given their timeframe it will be another 2 years. Other departments around the country that don’t have COAs are grounded and their expensive machines are sitting on someone’s desk. Oh, and Ted thinks that any state that buys his system (not someone else’s) will become the next Silicon Valley of UAS? What hubris!
Don’t take me wrong. I like what Olaeris has done. It’s a smart, well-designed system. But NC is right to be hesitant about making a $6M bet on any start-up company or UAS technology at this point.
Has anyone actually seen one of their drones? They only have stills or computer animated sales videos on their website. One would think if they have been trying to market this system for over two years, they would at least have video of a working prototype.
As an engineer and later as an intelligence officer with the U.S. Dept. of State I have been involved with drones since Vietnam. After reviewing the Olareris promo. Cheap and slick. But like home animation and video games.I can only say its a con. Who are these guys ? At a $ mil and half a year I can supply a dozen birds that do the same thing with hover time over two hours. and train local PD as a CFII to fly them for over a year. And the FAA just ruled drones regardless of size are aircraft and come under FAA regs for light aircraft. WRC