The Powell Municipal Airport may become one of the first in the country to let drones fly in its airspace.

The Powell City Council recently voted to apply for a $435,400 Community Readiness Grant through the Wyoming Business Council to build a 3,000-square-foot light industrial manufacturing facility at the city-owned airport north of Powell.

The plan is for GT Aeronautics — a company that designs and manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — to lease the facility from the city.

“It would be one of the very first times to try to put manned and unmanned aircraft operations coincidental at an airport,” said Tom Rullman, president/chief engineer of GT Aeronautics.

Beyond establishing GT Aeronautics in Powell, the project also opens a new industry and could potentially draw other businesses to the area, said Christine Bekes, executive director of Powell Economic Partnership.

“From an economic development perspective, this project is awesome,” Bekes told the Powell City Council during its meeting Nov. 21.

The city will own the facility and lease it to businesses that are aeronautical in nature, she said.

A major part of the project involves expanding infrastructure at the airport; that includes a 6,000-gallon cistern for water, extending electric and fiber lines and adding a septic system.

The overall project cost is $530,000, which would be covered with the $435,400 grant — if it’s approved at the state level — and $94,600 in matching funds from the City of Powell.

The city’s match would include $85,000 in cash: $75,000 from the water fund and $10,000 from the electric fund, each paying for their respective line extensions, said City Administrator Zane Logan. In addition, the city plans to provide in-kind work worth $9,600 to build an access road at the site.

The Wyoming Business Council requires a 10 percent match for the grant, and the city’s $94,600 match amounts to nearly 18 percent of the project, making it a “very strong application,” Bekes said.

Why Powell?

As Rullman and his wife, Suzanne, researched places where they could successfully run GT Aeronautics — which they started in California in 2002 — the couple considered Wyoming.

“We looked at the Cody airport and Powell airport. We even looked at Cheyenne and Casper and Sheridan,” Rullman said.

While visiting the area last year, the Rullmans met Kay Dooley of Powell, who learned they were thinking about moving their business here. She put them in touch with Bekes and James Klessens with Forward Cody.

The Rullmans moved to Wapiti earlier this year and decided the Powell airport was the best place for GT Aeronautics. Part of what makes Powell a good match is the lack of development around the airport, Rullman said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) doesn’t want unmanned flights to occur around airports with a lot of urban development, Rullman said. The FAA released its first rules for commercial use of drones last year, and regulations are still being developed.

“They’re kind of taking baby steps — they want to do it in a place where there’s not too many houses,” Rullman said. “Powell is, of course, perfect for that, because there aren’t many houses out there.”

The Powell Municipal Airport Board voted to support the project in September and will include a letter of support with the grant application, Bekes said.

“The airport board is firmly behind it,” said Councilman John Wetzel, who serves as the council representative on the airport board.

Powell Airport Operator Debbie Weckler said most of the local pilots she has talked with support the proposed facility.

During the council’s Nov. 21 public hearing on the proposal, one local pilot spoke out against it.

Bill Hodgskiss said he’s concerned about mid-air collisions between unmanned aerial vehicles and planes.

“Drones and airplanes don’t mix,” said Hodgskiss, who used to rent a hangar at the Powell airport.

“We don’t want this drone facility up at our airport,” he said.

Although he’s no longer an active pilot, he said that as a resident of Powell, he’s worried about potential lawsuits for the city.

“If there’s a collision between one of these damn drones at our airport, there’s going to be lawsuits like you can’t imagine,” Hodgskiss told the council.

He said to let the business go somewhere else.

“Let them go back to California — but not in Powell,” Hodgskiss said.

Bekes thanked Hodgskiss for his feedback. She said the Powell airport already has an aerobatic box, which is restricted airspace.

“Pilots call in knowing that,” she said.

Hodgskiss said not all private planes have radios.

“They don’t have to call in and sometimes they can’t call in,” he said.

In an interview Tuesday, Weckler said all of the pilots who fly in and out of the Powell airport use their radios to communicate.

“They’ve gotten used to using the radio, and it will stay like that ... we keep in contact with each other,” she said. “It’s a big safety feature here.”

When a plane is flying in the aerobatic box, Weckler sends out a notice to airmen (NOTAM) to alert pilots of the activity in the airspace. She said a NOTAM would be issued when UAVs fly at the airport.

“It lets everyone know that this is going on,” she said.

‘A unique opportunity’

Bekes said the project aligns with the Powell airport’s master plan to develop industrial lands at the airport.

“It’s a perfect opportunity to incubate this business and see how we — PEP — can help this business develop, establish and grow, and in the meantime, we can benefit the Powell airport, because they can be ready to sign a five-year lease on that facility,” Bekes said.

If approved, the facility will be built on an apron just south of where hangars were constructed in recent years.

“The reason it’s special is because that little apron, where there’s nothing built already, provides kind of an enclave for this operation,” Rullman said.

Unmanned aircraft can access the taxiway and runway without conflicting with manned aircraft, he said.

Overall, he said the project at the Powell airport is “an ideal solution to what we’re trying to do with the FAA.”

Rullman has discussed the project with the FAA’s office for unmanned aircraft and plans to continue talking with them this month.

“They’re totally on board with the project to make this go forward to get our flight certifications for our aircraft so they can operate in national airspace correctly,” he said.

Unlike the small drone toys that people can buy, these UAVs will operate like manned aircraft and can be used for firefighting, surveying, land management and other large-scale projects, he said.

The market for commercial drone use is emerging.

“We’ve been doing it in the defense world for a while. In the commercial world, it’s brand new,” Rullman said.

He said operating unmanned aircraft at an airport “is quite an undertaking; there are very few people that have attempted to try to do this.”

That’s part of what makes the project exciting for Powell, Bekes said.

“What it does is open an industry to us to recruit other operators and industry in that area,” she said.

In addition to owning and operating GT Aeronautics, Rullman is a commercial pilot for Delta Airlines, and he taught a Northwest College course on operating UAVs this fall.

Bekes said it benefits the workforce to have local expertise and training opportunities here.

Looking at only the 3,000 square-foot manufacturing facility, Bekes said it’s expected to create three to five jobs in the next five years, which she called a conservative estimate.

Councilman Jim Hillberry said there’s a local interest in UAVs, particularly for their use in agriculture.

“We’re going to see it more and more, not only in our airport, but other airports,” Hillberry said. “It gives us, as Christine said, a leg up on this type of business and could enhance more business at the airport.”

The council voted unanimously to support the Community Readiness Grant. Mayor Don Hillman and Councilman Floyd Young were not at the Nov. 21 meeting.

The Wyoming Business Council staff is slated to review the application in coming months. If it moves forward, it will go before the State Loan and Investment Board next spring. Bekes said the hope is to break ground on the project in May or June, with a December 2017 completion.