Springfield — quickly becoming a hub for flying car and drone testing — is adding another piece to its potentially lucrative portfolio: a development site.
AirPark Ohio is an industrial park adjacent to the Springfield-Beckley Airport. The state hopes eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles) and UAS (unmanned aircraft systems) companies use the site to build their vehicles.
"Manufacturing of the eVTOLs would be a perfect fit for it," said Assistant City Manager and Director of Development Tom Franzen. "The proximity to the airfield and ability to access the taxiways makes it ideal for that. So, production of any of those types of eVTOLs or remotely piloted aircraft would be a good fit."
The 100-acre site has been authenticated by JobsOhio, meaning it is verified to have adequate utilities, water, sewer, gas and fiber. Eventually Franzen says AirPark Ohio will open a few hundred more acres to development.
"We’ve been working on this as a state, really for the last decade in partnership with the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) and others to develop the capacity to do the research, development, testing,” Franzen says. “At the same time, the State of Ohio through the Ohio UAS Center Fly Ohio and other efforts have been laying the groundwork from a planning perspective of how this will all fit together."
The new development site comes on the heels of the groundbreaking for the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence at the airport, as WVXU reported. It’s scheduled to be finished by the fall of 2023. Franzen says the center will allow Springfield and the state to pursue flying car and drone testing and development much more aggressively in conjunction with the AFRL.
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