Drone industry poised to deliver big bucks — and tacos too
Quick — how many ordinary items can you imagine being delivered by remote-controlled aircraft?
Those crazy kids on the inter-Webs are full of clever ways to commercialize drone technology. Down in the Bay Area, there’s the well-documented “TacoCopter,” complete with mobile app (“Just tap and let the machines do the rest.”) The East Coast has its own version, the LobsterCopter.
It’s enough to send your imagination into overdrive — LatteCopter anyone? BrewCopter? GinandTonicCopter?
All silliness aside, the drone industry is shaping up as the next billion dollar industry and not surprising, Oregon wants a piece of the action as drones invade the civilian world.
Next year, the Legislature will weigh a $3 million grant proposal to pursue one of six drone test sites to be awarded by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The folks behind the effort figure Oregon has a lot to offer. The Columbia River Gorge already is a hotbed of drone-related activity thanks to Insitu Inc., a Boeing subsidiary with some 800 employees. New businesses are forming almost every day to tap into an industry that is expected to balloon in 2015, the FAA’s deadline to integrate unmanned aircraft into the nation’s airspace.
And Oregon offers every type of terrain imaginable. It’s got an ocean, rivers, mountains, deserts, forests, agriculture and urban areas, all just waiting to be flown over by unmanned aircraft.
If it wins one of the coveted test zones, drone developers and the businesses that support them will gather round. It’s the kind of high-tech development that makes economic developers’ hearts flutter.
I learned about Oregon’s coming bet on the drone industry this week at the annual Oregon Business Plan summit. I had a ball chatting with the various people behind the drive, including Oregon dreamers who are building them, and reading various reports about the state of the industry for a story in Friday’s edition of the Portland Business Journal.
Drones have any number of civilian applications — researchers use them to gather intel on beach erosion, polar bear dens, forest fires and migrating whales. First responders use them for law enforcement and in search and rescue efforts.
But I confess it was the silly side of the industry that captured my fancy. TacoCopter? Are you kidding me?
Seriously, the Business Journal has two decks here on the fifth floor of Pacific Center. One is completely unused and unfurnished.
Give me 10 minutes and a sheet with a target on it and I will happily turn it into a TacoCopter helipad.
More from the Portland Business Journal: PBJ honors Oregon's Most Admired CEOs and companies
The Portland Business Journal is a KATU.com news partner.
If a college class "can spoof the GPS, what can other nation states or terrorist groups do?" Representative Paul Broun (R-Ga.) asked at a recent congressional hearing on domestic drones
drones are killing machines and no, i don't want a drone-delivered taco. it's big brother on steroids.
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@trololol Actually the post blog here  is rather addictive like a good juicy fist fight and where we all just cant get enough of it.
A place where we can vent our anger and opinions and views and expect others to manifest about it when we find the magic button to push....Or maybe whine a lot and just be a simple trainwreck about something.
So, with that is it OK with you if That, someone comes back for another poliically correct Black-eye or a correction fat lip???
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Or should we be controled by you today?
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 @trololol Â
Hello, FishBait! Â Welcome back, man! Â How's life in Mama's basement working out for ya? Â Still leaching off of her cable connection, are ya? Â Right on, man. Â How's that OMMP thing working out for ya? Â Still having problems finding a grower, are ya? Â Hey, man . . . I *told* ya I'd hook you up with The Man!, didn't I? Â Yeah, I did. Â Well, in any case, just come on by, any time second Tuesday of next week-- I'm here for ya, man! Â I *know* you're in pain. Â Come on over. Â I'll hook you right up!
 @Gravity Works!  @trololol Oh, you people do entertain me... thank you!!!
 @trololol So......how do you know the names? Could this be the proverbial pot calling the kettle black?
Your lack of proper punctuation, improper use of capitalized letters and spelling errors is, in a sense, a sign of your acceptance of substandard knowledge. You obviously pay enough attention to comments that you can name several posters, so I have a hard time taking your message seriously. I see your troll and I raise you a ogre.
@JGalt Bizzaro! That person seems like an "crotchety old man" who stands by his front lawn fence just waiting for a kid to walk past so he can correct his wrongfull activities and fix his life up by giving the poor child a shock of his life and coercing his little feable mind into what his old cenile sense of reality is.
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Plz check for typo errs and other thing too. My fingers are "outta breath".....WHEW...
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 Now I gotta go walk past a fence somewhere.
@JGalt Nice! ;)