DroneAnalyst provides new insight into FAA Aerospace Forecast on drone industry

Haye Kesteloo
August 14, 2020
DroneAnalyst, FAA

Recently, former DJI employee David Benowitz joined the DroneAnalyst, as Head of Research and picked up where Collin Snow left off. Today, the DroneAnalyst released its latest report that provides new insight into the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aerospace Forecast 2020-2040 on the Drone Industry. Let’s dive in.

DroneAnalyst provides new insight into FAA Aerospace Forecast on drone industry

Every year the FAA releases its FAA Aerospace Forecast report and this year is no different. The report includes “updated forecasts for US airline traffic and capacity, FAA workload, General Aviation activity and pilots, as well as Commercial Space and Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) fleet and remote pilots,” and can be accessed on the FAA website.

The DroneAnalyst under the guidance of David Benowitz, Head of Research, helps us to make sense out of the update FAA numbers in their latest report. He estimates that the number of recreational or consumer drone operators in the U.S. has already surpassed 1 million back in January 2020 before we were hit by the Coronavirus.

It is important to point out that despite its large number of pilots, the consumer drone market has slowed down significantly and underperforms the FAA’s original growth forecast.

The commercial drone market, on the other hand, is doing much better, increasing its share of the overall drone market from 5% in 2016 to an impressive 25% now.

Keep in mind that the coronavirus or COVI-19 pandemic, as well as the deteriorating U.S. – China relationship, is likely to have a significant impact in the drone industry. The DroneAnalyst and DroneXl will look deeper into the overall drone market and these effects in future articles, so stay tuned.

If you have specific questions or areas of interest that you would like us to delve into, please let us know in the comments below as your feedback is much appreciated.

In the meantime, be sure to download the DroneAnalyst latest free report, titled “Historical Performance of the American UAS Industry”.

Download our FREE report covering the performance of the US drone industry from 2016-2019 here: https://t.co/1bLYDP30Wt pic.twitter.com/30Mpgws2wX

— Drone Analyst (@droneanalyst) August 14, 2020

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Haye Kesteloo

Haye Kesteloo is a leading drone industry expert and Editor in Chief of DroneXL.co and EVXL.co, where he covers drone technology, industry developments, and electric mobility trends. With over nine years of specialized coverage in unmanned aerial systems, his insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Financial Times, and cited by The Brookings Institute, Foreign Policy, Politico and others.

Before founding DroneXL.co, Kesteloo built his expertise at DroneDJ. He currently co-hosts the PiXL Drone Show on YouTube and podcast platforms, sharing industry insights with a global audience. His reporting has influenced policy discussions and been referenced in federal documents, establishing him as an authoritative voice in drone technology and regulation. He can be reached at haye @ dronexl.co or @hayekesteloo.