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BATTLE CREEK – A proposed drone park in Battle Creek has secured $7 million in state funding to advance its development, highlighting the latest in statewide efforts to seize economic opportunity from the nascent industry.
The Michigan Unmanned Aerial Systems Park slated for roughly 200 vacant acres on the west side of the Battle Creek Executive Airport missed out on federal grant funding at the end of 2021, but has now secured $7 million in the next state budget that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed in July.
The park is intended to serve as a hub for unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drones, as well as commercial drone manufacturing and flight testing, according to Joe Sobieralski, president and CEO of Battle Creek Unlimited Inc., the economic development organization that is driving the project.
Battle Creek Unlimited has been working on plans for the park for about five years with airport officials and the city of Battle Creek. The new state funding will support the development of what Sobieralski calls virtual infrastructure: Radar technology that will allow drones to coexist with manned aircraft in the same airspace.
“This first $7 million will allow us to begin the process of putting the procedures in place, working with the Federal Aviation Administration and getting the right radar visualization system in that will then allow the Battle Creek Executive Airport to support land launching and recovering UAS,” Sobieralski told Crain’s Grand Rapids.
In 2018, Battle Creek Unlimited received a $150,000 grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corp. to fund a feasibility study on the Battle Creek Executive Airport and surrounding airspace.
The report indicated favorable conditions for the unmanned aerial systems park, supported by the presence of organizations such as the Western Michigan University College of Aviation, the Battle Creek Air National Guard (federally designated as the 110th Attack Wing), and the federal FAA Battle Creek Flight Inspection Field Office.
To read more, click on Crain’s Grand Rapids
