Founder and CEO Yeonjoon "Ethan" Park said he wanted to venture out from the world of research to become part of an emerging drone industry.
As Federal Aviation Administration policy began opening the doors for commercial drones, Park, who lives in Tabb, said he and three partners launched DroniCar in September with the firm moving into the Ocean Storage building near Route 17 and Coventry Boulevard in December.
"Research and development is exciting but there's some limits. You develop some prototypes but that's all," Park said. "If you go into business, there's a lot more of a chance to bring your dreams into reality."
He set up a computer-aided design studio and small lab space to test parts and assemble drones. He plans to use storage space behind the office as the firm grows. DroniCar has three employees, including two Christopher Newport University students who have an interest in unmanned aerial vehicles.
"The whole unmanned systems cluster is something we think can be a real growth area for us," York Economic Development Director Jim Noel said.
Park worked for 12 years — most recently with the National Institute of Aerospace — as a research scientist at NASA Langley Research Center. There he helped to develop a prototype for a solar-powered heavy cargo airship drone with funding from the Department of Transportation in 2011.
Park, who said he has 26 patents to his name, is licensing from NASA the drone airship technology he helped to develop. He plans to continue designing drone systems and components.
"People can focus on the high-level research and we do the midlevel customization and services," Park said.
DroniCar plans to target the advertising market first with plans to show a 20-foot drone airship prototype at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International's "Xponential" expo in Dallas in May, he said. The firm can customize and design drones for clients and plans to launch a marketplace for specialty drones and drone parts and components that the firm's staff can help make user-ready, Park said.
"We want to become the drone component marketplace for Hampton Roads," Park said.
Park, 47, has a background in aerospace engineering as well as semiconductor material science, which includes developing solar cell technology. The firm's capabilities also extend to autonomous cars, intelligent highway systems and sensors for data imaging and processing, Park said.
The small firm also would like to partner with government agencies or larger companies as a support for drone development, he said.
"We want to develop Hampton Roads to be the Silicon Valley of UAVs and drones," Park said.
Sadie Rynestad, a computer engineering junior at CNU, said she wanted to work as an information technology and unmanned aircraft systems specialist at DroniCar because she sees drone-related job opportunities growing in the future.
Daniel Morris, executive director of the Peninsula Technology Incubator in Hampton, wants the region to become a hotbed for developing drone technology. He said the incubator is working with 12 drone-related firms, primarily startups, and specifically helps researchers gain business insight.
"I think we have the highest potential in the state, quite frankly, for developing the industry," Morris said. "We've got such a dense concentration of resources, assets, talents and intellectual capital."
©2017 the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
