A Silicon Valley for Drones, in North Dakota(nytimes.com) |
A Silicon Valley for Drones, in North Dakota(nytimes.com) |
Silicon Valley has it's strengths, but it can't be ground zero for everything.
Honestly, if the NUMI plant wasn't in Fremont, I could see the majority of Tesla being not in the bay area (one could argue the battery plant in NV is such a shift).
Southern California has Mojave Air and Space Port, which is, among other things, a flight test center for civilian aircraft. Scaled Composites flies from there, and SpaceShip One was launched from there for the X-Prize. They have a test pilot school. Lots of exotic aircraft activity takes place there. Read their "Why Test Here" section.[1] Three of their features: "Welcoming attitude toward imagination and experimentation", "Huge airspace away from populated urban areas", and "Should you ever need it, a sophisticated Aerospace Rescue and FireFighting operation". This is useful for larger or longer-ranged drones. QF-4 drones, converted from F-4 fighters, are built and tested there.
I also wonder if Nevada's climate would make it a better choice too. The Dakotas have some of the most extreme weather in the US - hot summers, frigid winters, severe thunderstorms, and wind - there were a lot of windy days when I lived in North Dakota. Would days with subzero high temps and 30 MPH sustained winds be a useful environment for drones?
One thing that really seemed to help the Silicon Valley get started was how away it was from everything - particularly the establishment on the east coast. I do wonder if the next big thing will be started somewhere that is similarly away from Silicon Valley - somewhere no one would expect, like North Dakota.
The extreme weather (hot, cold, windy, etc.) is a bonus for drone testing since they have to operate in those conditions in the real world.
(Also, good luck getting your experimental UAV back when it mysteriously goes down over Area 51...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmD3rXUR1Tw
The supply of idiots seems limitless.
(That drama was made with the total cooperation of ANA, and the aviation details are accurate.)
Also tons of near by land and open ocean, as well as NASA and government contracting engineers already co-located and a bunch of other great universities nearby or with satellite campuses in and around Orlando / Daytona.
Being able to fly 365 days a year helps too.
Realistically, the Pacific Ocean and insanely high concentration of engineers in sv seems like the most likely place for long-term drone innovation.
While wikipedia now says that Subaru has their HQ in Tokyo, i could have sworn they were initially based on Japan's northern island. And they seem to make some damn fine cars for winter roads.
Similarly both Korea and Finland gets damn cold during winter, and thus both Samsung and Nokia may have ignored capacitive touch screens since they don't work too well with thick gloves.
The weather is so extreme that it often manages to simulate the north pole and other tundra. If that's your aim, then it's a goldmine.
Example of a newer wide area air restriction in the state: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-06-20/pdf/2012-15008.p...
> The weather is so extreme that it often manages to simulate the north pole and other tundra. If that's your aim, then it's a goldmine.
Oh come on, we've actually had better weather than SD and MN for the last couple of years. Its not that horrible, it just has horrible moments. Poor people can get their car too and fro, so its not that bad.
> Example ....
That's from 2012 and for Devils Lake, ND. The range is pretty small and they were talking about the firing range. Heck the same document tells of scheduling with local crop dusters. I work 10 miles from there and the local airport is within 8 miles of the place. Mostly they are doing construction training and now a bit of drones themselves.
As an aside, the City of Fargo uses crop dusters to spray for mosquitoes in the summer - which is either super cool or super annoying, depending on your opinion of airplanes :)
It scares the bejesus out of you if you're not ready for it.