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PENDLETON, OREGON IS DRONETOWN, USA™
OUR ORIGINS
In the beginning, Pendleton, Oregon’s journey to DRONETOWN, USA did not start with drones. It began with an airfield built for war, waiting decades for its next purpose. The Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton has long played a critical role in American aviation history. It was here that Doolittle’s Raiders prepared for their heroic mission, and where the Triple Nickle Smokejumpers, America’s first Black paratrooper unit, trained before being deployed to the Pacific Northwest on some of the most daring operations of the era. Aviation is not an accessory to Pendleton’s identity. It is foundational, embedded early and deeply into the town’s culture. But by the early 2000s, the airport’s original purpose had faded. What remained was an overbuilt, underutilized World War II-era airfield that had become a financial strain on the City of Pendleton. The infrastructure was there. The traffic was not. For many communities, this is where the story ends. Pendleton chose a different path. As part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization Act of 2012, Congress mandated the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) test site program to integrate drones into the national airspace. Steve Chrisman, Pendleton’s Airport & Economic Development Director, along with Wayne Green, previously the Airport Manager and now Airfield Engineer, spearheaded the City’s bid to become one of these test sites. With an initial investment of under $500,000, Pendleton’s city council took a bold leap of faith, aiming to revitalize the airport by catering to the nascent drone industry. This unorthodox decision, naturally, was met with some local skepticism, but the City confidently stayed the course. When the FAA announced the original seven UAS test sites, Pendleton was not selected. The City was officially recognized as a UAS test range under the University of Alaska Fairbanks Test Site, and work began to transform the airport into an FAA-approved proving ground. This marked the beginning of Pendleton’s evolution from a historic airfield into a UAS hub, driven by visionary leadership and a willingness to reinvent rural. DRONETOWN, USA WAS BORN.
INDUSTRY CHALLENGES:
A NEW TESTING MODEL IS NEEDED
By the early 2010s, the UAS industry was advancing faster than the systems built to support it. For most manufacturers and operators, meaningful flight testing was confined to military-restricted ranges. Access was limited. Schedules were crowded. Costs were high. Securing range time often meant navigating layers of approvals, long lead times, and rigid operating constraints. For many, the barrier was not technology. It was access. Even after the FAA established its official UAS Test Site Program, many early sites remained closely tied to academic institutions or government research agendas. While valuable, these environments were often misaligned with the realities of commercial and defense development cycles. The core challenges persisted: slow timelines, limited flexibility, and testing environments that made iteration expensive and difficult. The industry reached a crossroads. If unmanned systems were going to scale, companies needed places where they could test more, wait less, and prove capability without exorbitant costs or bureaucracy. They needed proving grounds that treated testing as a business-critical function, not a research exercise. And they needed airspace where manned and unmanned operations could safely coexist, reflecting the real-world environments these systems were being built for. Pendleton recognized this gap early. The City deliberately designed something fundamentally different: a turnkey, business-friendly UAS range built around ease of access, flexible scheduling, and operational speed. One where companies could reserve range time without months of lead time. Where iteration was encouraged and where platforms of all sizes, missions, and sponsors could operate under a single, unified framework. In doing so, Pendleton redefined what UAS testing could look like by democratizing the airspace. Testing was no longer reserved for the few. It became accessible to the many. This marked the beginning of a more open, more efficient model for proving unmanned systems.
A NEW SOLUTION:
DRIVEN BY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Pendleton’s approach was nothing short of revolutionary in the UAS industry; a city-owned and operated test range that moves at the speed of business. This public-sector enterprise model meant Pendleton could shift the narrative from slow and expensive to fast and affordable. The City’s decision to back the Pendleton UAS Range enabled a “find a way to yes” culture, where the default is to provide solutions to customer challenges. From the outset, the team acted more like start-up founders than government bureaucrats, prioritizing speed and customers’ mission requirements. This lean, “customer‐first” mentality starkly contrasts with the status quo. Other ranges often had layers of approval or competing priorities that made scheduling a drone test akin to a military operation. Pendleton flipped that script, positioning itself as “America’s most turnkey and business-friendly UAS range. In practical terms, this meant low fees, streamlined processes, and a one-stop shop for services. As a city department, the range wasn’t under immense pressure to turn massive profits. Instead, its mandate was economic development and reputation-building. This allowed Pendleton to keep prices affordable and maintain low overhead costs. The result was business-friendly, hassle-free operations that attracted more users, whose success stories attracted more economic benefits to Oregon. By focusing on convenience and speed, Pendleton built a reputation as the range that will bend over backwards for it’s customer’s missions. This unorthodox solution proved that a municipality-run airport could do what many thought only the federal government or major defense primes could; operating at a high-performance flight test range but with a fraction of the bureaucracy.
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
Pendleton did not just create a test range. It built an ecosystem. From the beginning, the City invested in the full set of conditions required to support serious UAS innovation at scale. Today, the Pendleton UAS Range offers a level of infrastructure, access, and environmental diversity that is difficult to replicate anywhere in the United States. PUR spans an enormous 14,000 square miles of FAA-approved airspace in northeast Oregon, with approvals up to 15,000 feet above mean sea level (MSL). That airspace is largely rural and sparsely populated, meaning aircraft can fly freely without endangering or being disrupted by commercial airliners. Within our vast range are over 50 distinct types of terrains and climates: open high-desert plains (with 300+ VFR days a year), mountains reaching 10,000’ alpine peaks, dense forests, rivers, lakes, canyons, agricultural fields, and even an adjacent military restricted area (R-5701) for approved, special operations. For most programs, replicating this range of conditions would require testing across multiple states, ranges, or even countries. In Pendleton, it exists in one place, under one operational framework, with one team coordinating access. Perhaps most impressive and critical to daily operations is Pendleton’s UAS-friendly air traffic control tower, staffed by SERCO. With minimal commercial congestion, controllers are accustomed to integrating unmanned aircraft into the traffic pattern and working closely with range staff and customers to coordinate safe, efficient airspace use. This familiarity reduces friction and enables more flexible operations than at busier commercial airports.
Equally impressive is the physical infrastructure on the ground at Pendleton’s airport. Over the past decade, the city has continually upgraded facilities to meet customer needs. Key assets include: • Two runways (6,301 ft. x 150 ft. primary and 4,808 ft. x 100 ft. secondary) with full instrument approaches (ILS, VOR, GPS) for reliable all-weather operations. Even experimental eVTOL and heavy UAS can take off like conventional aircraft or use the large apron areas for vertical takeoff and landing. • Sixteen 50 ft. x 50 ft. UAS test pads, each equipped with power, water, and 10 Gbps fiber connections. These pads functionable, ready-to-use launch and landing sites, eliminating the need for teams to bring generators or communications infrastructure. • Multiple hangars and workspaces ranging from 2,300 sq. ft. to a massive 33,000 sq. ft. B17 hangar. The newest addition, Flex Hangar III, is a state-of-the-art 18,000 sq. ft. facility (three bays of 6,000 sq. ft. each) built in 2025 to support long-term customer operations. Each bay offers high-clearance doors, office space, high-speed internet, direct taxiway access, and even radiant-heated floors, providing companies with ready-made space and storage right on the flight line. • 160-acre UAS Industrial Park on site, with shovel-ready ground and ‘bomber pads’ (large concrete hardstands originally built for WWII bombers) now repurposed for vertical takeoff pads or staging areas for long-endurance ops. Pendleton provides ample room for future expansion, whether more hangars, storage for autonomous ground vehicles, or even manufacturing facilities. Supporting this infrastructure is a deep bench of on-site capabilities. Pendleton provides three mobile command centers, including a Ford F-550 Drone Operations Vehicle (DOVe), an on-site machine shop staffed by Sigma Design, a tool crib, and a 3D printing lab. Teams can fabricate parts, perform repairs, or conduct hardware-in-the-loop testing without leaving the airport. The Blue Mountain Equine Center is available as an indoor UAS test facility, allowing small UAS to fly in controlled, GPS-denied environments, ideal for autonomy development or counter-UAS testing with minimal risk. When specialized equipment or resources are required, the range team actively assists with procurement and coordination. All of this is tied together by an experienced range staff that provides mission planning, safety oversight, and rapid COA coordination, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week to support night flights and time-sensitive test campaigns. Support extends beyond the fence line as well, with coordinated hotel partnerships, long-term housing options, and local support that make extended deployments easier for visiting teams. This is what turnkey looks like in practice. Teams arrive with their aircraft and equipment. Pendleton provides the rest. And within hours, they are flying.
A NATIONAL FLIGHT TEST ASSET
Since opening in 2014, the Pendleton UAS Range has supported more than 67,000 flight operations across 80+ companies and programs, placing it among the most active UAS ranges in the United States. Pendleton’s users span the full spectrum of the unmanned ecosystem, from Fortune 500 aerospace and defense companies to fast-moving startups pushing the boundaries of autonomy, endurance, and scale. Airbus selected Pendleton as the primary flight test site for its Vahana electric air taxi, where the company completed 138 successful autonomous eVTOL flights. Boeing’s Insitu, one of the Pacific Northwest’s most established unmanned aircraft manufacturers, routinely conducts test and training operations at the range, leveraging its proximity, privacy, and operational flexibility. Defense-focused technology firms have brought advanced programs to Pendleton for the same reasons. The ability to iterate quickly, operate securely, and fly at scale without unnecessary friction has made the range a preferred proving ground. Federal and academic researchers have followed suit. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has conducted drone research programs at Pendleton, and the range plays a growing role in Oregon’s statewide innovation initiatives. The impact of this activity extends far beyond flight counts. Data generated from thousands of Pendleton operations has informed FAA UAS integration efforts and broader industry progress. For context, the FAA reported that all designated UAS test sites combined logged roughly 15,000 flights by 2020. Pendleton alone has now far exceeded that figure, underscoring its outsized contribution to the national testing ecosystem. The range has also hosted pivotal demonstrations, including long-range unmanned cargo drops, sense-and-avoid radar trials, and multi-vehicle swarm exercises supporting U.S. Department of Defense objectives. In September 2025, Cummings Aerospace conducted a landmark flight of its Hellhound 3D-printed UAV at Pendleton, completing a 30-plus-kilometer mission that validated a new class of low-cost, extended-range unmanned systems. The success of that test, as part of the Department of War’s push to “unleash U.S. military drone dominance, highlighted why military units and defense contractors choose Pendleton. In 2025, a Lockheed Martin Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT) team from Palmdale, California, traveled to the Pendleton UAS Range to test CMMT-X, where they mounted CMMT-X to the pylon of a test aircraft and took to the skies for CMMT’s first pylon launch from an airborne aircraft. The vehicle safely separated from the launch craft, deployed its wings, and lit its engine to initiate powered flight. All this activity has delivered concrete benefits to Pendleton’s community and the broader region. The once-sleepy municipal airport has seen its revenue more than double, now turning a profit after years of operating in the red. Over 150 high-paying aerospace jobs have been created in Pendleton (range staff, resident company employees, support services), with more on the way. Since its inception, PUR customers have injected millions of dollars into local hotels, restaurants, and businesses. By any measure, Pendleton’s bet paid off. The City successfully transformed a World War II-era airport into a nationally relevant flight test asset and a durable economic engine. Pendleton is as proud of being known for drones today as it has long been for its famous rodeo, wool, and whisky. “DRONETOWN, USA” isn’t a marketing slogan; it’s a source of local pride grounded in real accomplishments.
PROVEN HERE, READY ANYWHERE
Across advanced air mobility, defense, and commercial innovation, programs with vastly different missions have come to Pendleton for the same reason: if it works here, it works anywhere. Urban air mobility concepts designed for dense cities were proven over the wheatfields of rural Oregon. Defense systems requiring discretion and realism were validated safely. Commercial operators tested BVLOS routes, wildfire response, and agricultural monitoring at scale. From night operations and swarming to cargo drops and counter-UAS trials, Pendleton has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to provide the airspace, regulatory framework, and on-site support required to turn concepts into capability. “Proven in Pendleton” is not a tagline. It is a credential earned by programs ready for the real world.
MORE. MORE. MORE.
Pendleton’s mission is not a static one; it’s inherently forward-looking. The range was built to anticipate the future of unmanned aviation and remains committed to expanding in tandem with industry needs. As drones move from experimental to ubiquitous and advanced air mobility inch closer to reality, Pendleton is ensuring its capabilities keep pace or even lead. A key focus area is Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations, widely regarded as the next leap for drone integration. Pendleton’s existing COAs already allow for beyond-line-of-sight test flights with appropriate safety mitigations, and the range has helped demonstrate detect-and-avoid technologies critical for routine BVLOS flight. Going forward, Pendleton is working closely with the FAA and industry partners to establish permanent BVLOS corridors in its airspace, meaning that in the near future, a drone company could come to Pendleton and fly true BVLOS missions (over many miles, without chase planes or observers) under an approved framework. This capability will be indispensable for testing drone delivery networks, long-range survey drones, and air taxis that need to navigate autonomously. One particularly exciting development is Pendleton’s initiative to become a hub for counter-UAS and electromagnetic warfare (EW) testing. Once realized, it will make Pendleton one of the very few places a company or military unit can safely perform counter-drone tactics or harden their UAVs against electronic threats. Given the rising importance of counter-UAS, this will be a national asset in its own right. Our strategy is to remain ahead of industry demand: more airspace, more infrastructure, more capabilities, all while keeping the same flexibility and customer focus that define its ethos. Whether it’s swarms of delivery drones, cUAS missions, or hybrid-electric passenger craft, Pendleton intends to be the launchpad for it. In the dynamic world of UAS and AAM, Pendleton’s ability to scale alongside the future is what will keep it at the forefront. This vision is one of continuous adaptation, so that tomorrow’s innovators find Pendleton as ready and invaluable as today. In short, if a capability is on the horizon for the UAS industry, Pendleton is either building it or ready to host it.
PROVEN IN PENDLETON.
PROVEN FOR AMERICA.
Pendleton’s rise as DRONETOWN, USA, is not a marketing story. It’s a case study of innovation, accessibility, and community-driven progress. In an industry often characterized by hype and short-lived trends, Pendleton has built something enduring: a sustainable national asset in the form of a city-run test range. The doctrine that emerges from Pendleton’s experience is rooted in a few core truths: • Access and Affordability are Catalysts: By lowering barriers to entry, Pendleton empowered countless programs that might have otherwise stalled. The range proved that if you “solve the delays, costs, and complexity” of flight testing, the industry will respond with a surge of innovation. When a small drone startup or a research lab can afford to test like a major aerospace firm, breakthroughs happen faster. Pendleton has institutionalized this principle, making fast, flexible testing a norm rather than an exception. • Credibility through Capability: Pendleton understood that hosting hobbyists flying small drones wasn’t enough to claim the mantle of the UAS range; it had to deliver comprehensive capabilities and real results. So it did. By supporting tens of thousands of operations and attracting top-tier projects, Pendleton earned credibility the only way that matters: by demonstrating competence at scale. Now, when industry leaders look for a proving ground, Pendleton’s track record speaks for itself. PUR’s mission is to drive industry innovation, support local economic growth, and attract investment to Oregon, and it has fulfilled that mission by combining technical prowess with a pragmatic, roll-up-the-sleeves attitude. • Community and Economic Resilience: One of the most remarkable aspects of Pendleton’s effort is that it marries high-tech ambition with local community benefit. This is not a Silicon Valley enclave or a secluded federal installation; it’s a small city leveraging technology to reinvent itself. Pendleton showed that rural America can be an engine of the future, a place where drones, jobs, and opportunity converge. Youth in Pendleton can aspire to careers in aerospace without leaving home. The economic ripple effect proves a broader point: investing in innovation infrastructure can permanently uplift a community’s pride. • Agility with Accountability: Pendleton’s operation strikes a balance between agility and safety that is instructive. The range’s team cut out bureaucracy, but not at the expense of rigor. They developed robust safety management systems, transparent operating procedures, and close coordination with regulators to ensure that being “fast” didn’t mean “reckless.” This model of lean governance with accountability is one that could be replicated elsewhere, but Pendleton will always have been the first to perfect it. As a result, it has the trust of both industry and government, a hard-earned status that it will carry forward. Ultimately, Pendleton is about committing to the long haul and to an idea that seemed audacious in the beginning: that a small city could become a linchpin of the drone revolution and continue to prove it year after year. Pendleton is actualizing a vision of a self-sustaining UAS ecosystem, anchored by functional, usable infrastructure, that can adapt and thrive indefinitely. In this vision, drones and autonomous vehicles are not just visitors in Pendleton’s skies; they are part of the community’s fabric. The city and its range are prepared to support unmanned aviation not as a passing trend, but as a permanent facet of 21st-century life and economy. As we look to the future, the advances enabled in this small city will ripple out to enable drone deliveries in our suburbs, autonomous air taxis in our cities, smarter crop management on our farms, and increased defense capability for the warfighter. Pendleton proves that integrating drones into society doesn’t have to occur in major metropolitan areas. It’s happening right now in the wheat fields and wide-open skies of Eastern Oregon, and with a level of excellence and efficiency that the rest of the country could learn from. This is the enduring significance of DRONETOWN, USA. It stands as a model of how vision and grit can permanently alter the trajectory of an industry and a community. If you’ve made it this far, you’re an ally, and we welcome your support. Pendleton has built not just a test range, but a legacy that will continue to fuel innovation, inspire investment, and secure America’s leadership in unmanned aviation for decades to come. In the end, Pendleton’s claim as DRONETOWN, USA is a declaration that the future of unmanned systems and technology is Proven in Pendleton.
