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AeroX taking ‘major steps’ towards building unmanned aviation ecosystem in North Carolina

North Car­oli­na-based non­prof­it AeroX has tak­en major steps toward build­ing a region­al advanced air mobil­i­ty (AAM) ecosys­tem since form­ing in 2021, includ­ing the devel­op­ment of the nation’s first urban unmanned air traf­fic man­age­ment sys­tem (UTM) accord­ing to its first annu­al report, ‘AeroX Takes Flight in North Car­oli­na’.

AeroX chair Michael Baugh­an said: “Com­pe­ti­tion is heat­ing up across the coun­try as states and com­mu­ni­ties recog­nise AAM’s poten­tial to pro­pel eco­nom­ic growth. By lever­ag­ing North Carolina’s lead­er­ship in unmanned avi­a­tion and posi­tion­ing our state as a leader in AAM, we are attract­ing inno­v­a­tive com­pa­nies that will grow all sec­tors of our econ­o­my and pro­vide high-val­ue jobs for our com­mu­ni­ties.”

AAM refers to an emerg­ing air trans­porta­tion sys­tem for mov­ing car­go and ulti­mate­ly peo­ple, using unmanned air­craft with advanced tech­nolo­gies, includ­ing autonomous elec­tric air­craft and eVTOL air­craft. Stud­ies esti­mate the AAM mar­ket could reach $1 tril­lion annu­al­ly by 2040, poten­tial­ly cre­at­ing more than 280,000 jobs.

AeroX’s strate­gic plan, adopt­ed in 2021, calls for three broad strate­gies to cap­i­talise on these trans­for­ma­tive tech­nolo­gies: cre­ate an organ­i­sa­tion to man­age the work, build America’s first urban UTM and build an AAM ecosys­tem.

Among its results to date, AeroX:

1) Formed a 501(c)(6) indus­try asso­ci­a­tion to accel­er­ate AAM in the state and a 501(c)(3) to raise mon­ey for work­force devel­op­ment and oth­er AAM-sup­port­ive ini­tia­tives.
2) Launched a finan­cial cam­paign, rais­ing a $5 mil­lion grant from the N.C. Gen­er­al Assem­bly to build AAM infra­struc­ture and $150,000 plus in annu­al mem­ber­ship for oper­a­tions and pro­grams.
3) Devel­oped a con­cept of oper­a­tions for a UTM, called ATLAS, that will enable AAM and secured ven­dors to build out the sys­tem.
4) Iden­ti­fied cor­po­rate part­ners that will help enable three key use cas­es for ATLAS: unmanned pack­age deliv­ery (UPS Flight For­ward, Atri­um Health Wake For­est Bap­tist), pub­lic safe­ty (Forsyth Coun­ty Sheriff’s Depart­ment) and infra­struc­ture inspec­tions (Duke Ener­gy).
5) Launched an AAM weath­er impact study to assess indus­try needs and loca­tions for sen­sors that can enable AAM in com­mu­ni­ties across the state.
6) Facil­i­tat­ed Forsyth Coun­ty Sheriff’s Office launch of North Carolina’s first drones-as-first-respon­ders pro­gram.
7) Formed a part­ner­ship with Eliz­a­beth City State Uni­ver­si­ty, a major N.C. minor­i­ty-serv­ing insti­tu­tion, and Pied­mont Flight Train­ing in Win­ston-Salem to sup­port the university’s online four-year avi­a­tion sci­ences degree pro­gram, with exclu­sive flight train­ing sup­port in Forsyth Coun­ty.

In Decem­ber 2022, Mea­sure­ment tech­nol­o­gy provider Fron­tier Pre­ci­sion Unmanned has donat­ed two drones val­ued at $50,000 to AeroX to sup­port its sci­ence, tech­nol­o­gy, engi­neer­ing, and math­e­mat­ics (STEM) work­force devel­op­ment ini­tia­tives.

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Jason Pritchard

Jason Pritchard is the Editor of eVTOL Insights. He holds a BA from Leicester's De Montfort University and has worked in Journalism and Public Relations for more than a decade. Outside of work, Jason enjoys playing and watching football and golf. He also has a keen interest in Ancient Egypt.

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