This paper serves as a roadmap for stakeholders across government, industry, and education, poised to leverage Utah’s expanding role in defense, aerospace, and emerging technologies.

The United States’ global economic and technological leadership has long been fueled by the production and consumption of minerals.

New Yorkers recently stood at a downtown Manhattan heliport to watch a pilot take off vertically in an air taxi powered by electric batteries. Buoyed up by six small propellers, the air taxi quietly circled over the East River before returning safely to the heliport.

Venture capital has played a critical role in American innovation since the end of World War II. Its ability to catalyze new technologies has proved vital to national security and American economic dominance.

In 2002, millions of people descended on Utah for the XIX Olympic Winter Games. It was a big opportunity for a state with only 2.2 million people — one that state leaders took seriously.

As cities around the world gear up for the future of air mobility, Utah is building the technology that will help to make it all possible.

In 1945, writer George Orwell predicted the rise of two “super-states, each possessed of a weapon by which millions of people can be wiped out in a few seconds.” These two nations were destined to divide the world into a permanent state of cold war.

The UDOT report noted several benefits of developing an air taxi system, including a faster connection between rural areas and population centers.