The Swiss company WindShape will soon be up and running with its headquarters right outside of downtown Tulsa, near the Osage Casino at Skyway 36.
WindShape will be recreating weather patterns to see how drones operate and behave in them to advance technology.
Skyway 36 stretches 1,200 square miles within the Osage Nation reservation and is a result of a public/private partnership venture that includes Oklahoma State University, the Tulsa Regional Chamber, Tulsa Innovation Labs, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. The project broke ground with a $38.2 million Economic Development Administration grant in 2024.
The loop includes the Osage Nation Ranch, OSU Campus in Stillwater and a testing site near Pawnee.
“It’s a facility that we’re building to be the next generation of aerospace,” said Rick Perrier of Osage LLC.
They are hoping to attract other drone companies to use their 114-mile corridor. Perrier says it’s a chance for other companies to come and utilize Oklahoma’s favorable conditions to test out potentially life-saving technology. It’s not just to predict weather or improve commerce but it also can improve the health of people living in rural areas. This technology can deliver goods and services to rural areas more easily.
Skyway 36 Droneport Technology Innovation Center is also getting ready to get certified by the FAA to allow a company or a person to fly a drone beyond visual line of sight. Right now, Perrier said the regulations pretty much call for a drone operator to have sight of his drone the entire time that they’re flying it.
The corridor is going to allow Skyway 36 to put radars and software up so that the person that is flying the drone could be flying it from a closet somewhere, and they have a visual line of sight through cameras.
Skyway 36 is also hoping to attract 3D printing businesses that will allow them to print propellers and different parts of a drone.
“We want this to be a one-stop shop. And because we’re so close to an urban area, it allows companies to do the testing that they need to do prior to activating their products into the world, so that you don’t have a drone flying through your window.
Another goal of getting into the drone business is to provide high-tech jobs for Osages who want to get into the field.
“It’s going to be an opportunity to hire Osages and to also allow these kids that are going to college now to come back to Osage County and use their degrees, their engineering degrees, their marketing degrees in Skyway 36 because these companies are gonna need that type of talent,” Perrier said.
With WindShape as an anchor tenant, Osage LLC says other companies are very interested in locating to Tulsa and that will increase revenue.
Skyway 36 will be hosting an open house.
“This is what tribal-led innovation and economic development looks like,” said Russell Goff, CEO of Osage LLC in a press release. “Skyway36 is fast becoming a cornerstone of the nation’s uncrewed aircraft testing infrastructure and shows what’s possible when sovereign tribal nations engage in public-private partnerships.”
