Synopsis
For more than two decades, uncrewed aircraft have proven themselves across agriculture, infrastructure, logistics, public safety, and national defense. The technology is not in question. What remains unresolved is whether the United States will build the workforce, capital, and manufacturing base required to lead the industry it pioneered.
Future Flight is Sharon Rossmark's blueprint for that leadership. Drawing on more than a decade at the intersection of drone technology, workforce development, and industry strategy, Rossmark traces three systemic gaps that will determine who leads uncrewed aviation for the next generation:
A workforce pipeline that cannot fill the jobs the market is already creating
Capital flowing toward hardware while the human infrastructure behind it goes unfunded
A manufacturing base dangerously dependent on foreign supply chains
Underlying all three is the absence of a coordinated national strategy — one that small businesses, educators, and the industry's broadest workforce depend on every day.
With a Foreword by Dr. Robin R. Murphy, Raytheon Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, Future Flight moves across sixteen chapters — from the geopolitics of who owns the sky, to the talent deficit reshaping hiring, to the private capital and defense spending redrawing the industry's map, to the integrated national strategy the next decade requires.
The technology is ready. The markets are real. What remains is the decision to lead.
Future Flight is essential reading for executives, policymakers, educators, investors, and community leaders shaping the systems, policies, and institutions that will define the future of uncrewed aviation.