As the debate over proposed bans on Chinese drone platforms continues, we present this guest post from Michael Thompson, drone pilot, FAA Safety Team representative and the founder and lead instructor of a drone business, Connecting Skies, LLC. Here, Michael writes about how a ban on Chinese drone platforms could impact the pilots and business owners like him who currently rely upon them. DRONELIFE neither accepts nor makes payment for guest posts.
America’s Newly Evolved Workforce: The True effects of a Chinese Drone Ban
By Michael Thompson, FAA Safety Team representative and Founder & Lead Instructor, Connecting Skies, LLC
While lobbyists and lawmakers remain hyper-focused on Blue UAS and NDAA-compliant drones for police and defense sectors, they’re overlooking the commercial and civilian side of America’s drone ecosystem. The military accounts for 49% of the North American drone market. Law enforcement and public safety represent another 15%. But the remaining 36% are made up of blue-collar professionals, small businesses, and contractors who use drones not as a business, but as a tool that makes their real work faster, safer, and more efficient.
These are roofers, infrastructure inspectors, farmers, engineers, surveyors, and insurance adjusters who rely on Chinese-manufactured drones for their day-to-day work.
The use cases are extensive and economically vital:
- Precision Agriculture: Mapping fields for crop yield predictions and soil efficiency.
- Utility & Infrastructure: Monitoring power lines, pipelines, towers, and bridges.
- Insurance & Real Estate: Conducting thermal scans for roof inspections and property valuations.
- AI & Data: Capturing high-resolution images for training machine learning models and generating 3D reality data.
We’ve crossed into a new industrial revolution, one in which there are more small businesses using drones than there are ‘drone companies’. These businesses aren’t just flying drones— they’re feeding AI pipelines, improving workplace safety, and optimizing American industry.
The Ripple Effect
If legislation is passed banning Chinese-manufactured drones and parts, the consequences will be immediate and far-reaching:
- Service Delays & Shutdowns: Inspection firms, data providers, and infrastructure consultants stall operations.
- Import Bans Take Effect: Sales, imports, and part of new Chinese-manufactured drones will be prohibited leaving no cost-effective replacement and higher barrier to entry into the drone industry.
- Operations Stall: Businesses that rely on affordable drones for inspections, mapping, and data collection will face costly delays or shut down altogether.
- AI Development Slows: Companies that depend on fresh aerial imagery to train machine learning models—such as Skycatch, which transforms drone-collected visual data into actionable 3D models and Ortho mosaics for industries like construction and mining, will lose critical input.
This is not hypothetical, it’s already happening.
