The luck of the Irish is officially landing in the American heartland. Ireland-based Manna Air Delivery announced this week that it is launching its first full-scale metropolitan U.S. operations — more specifically in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition, Manna is making Tulsa its central U.S. operational and manufacturing base. Even bigger news for the local economy is that Manna expects to create more than 1,000 jobs in Tulsa over the next three years.
Here is everything you need to know about Manna’s big American move — and why it chose Tulsa.
About Manna’s Tulsa expansion
Manna says it intends to create 1,000+ jobs over the next three years. That certainly means drone pilots, but the company is hiring across a massive range of roles, including:
- Aviation and flight operations
- Commercial operations & customer support
- Drone manufacturing and maintenance
- Business and administrative functions
That manufacturing piece is particularly interesting, perhaps now that U.S. lawmakers seek to ban foreign-made drones. Manna’s plan to combat this? Rather than just shipping drones over from Europe, Manna says it will build its U.S. manufacturing base right in Tulsa to power its entire future American expansion.
“America represents the world’s largest opportunity for drone delivery, and we’re excited about creating more than 1,000 American jobs over the next three years,” said Bobby Healy, Founder and CEO of Manna in a prepared statement. “This isn’t about moving from Ireland — it’s about taking Irish technology to the world.”
Related read: Liang Feng shares a day in the life as a drone delivery lead
Now Oklahoma might seem like an unexpected choice for an international tech giant. But folks who have been paying attention to the drone world lately, might see that Tulsa is actually a total no-brainer. Tulsa is a federally designated Tech Hub, and local leaders have spent years building a world-class drone innovation ecosystem. The recruitment effort was a team sport, led by Tulsa Local Ventures (a George Kaiser Family Foundation initiative) in partnership with Tulsa Innovation Labs.
The SAFE-T initative
One of the biggest hurdles for drone delivery in the U.S. is navigating complex urban airspaces safely. Tulsa is solving this problem through what it’s calling the Secure Autonomy Feedback and Evaluation Testbed (SAFE-T) initiative. Managed by Tulsa Innovation Labs, SAFE-T is creating a shared digital infrastructure that tracks:
- Low-altitude airspace traffic
- Real-time micro-weather patterns
- Safety and risk mitigation data
This advanced uncrewed traffic management (UTM) setup gives companies like Manna a ready-to-go, secure testbed to scale commercial flights in urban areas without starting from scratch.
How Manna drone delivery works
As do a few other drone delivery operators, Manna’s delivery drones don’t actually land in customer yards. Instead of landing in your driveway or dropping a package from the sky, Manna utilizes an automated, remotely monitored drone that hovers at a safe altitude and lowers your package on a tether.
Manna has already logged nearly 380,000 global deliveries across its operations in Ireland. They’re small compared to behemoths like Wing and Zipline, but they still qualify as one of the more experienced commercial drone operators on the planet.
And its entry into the U.S. market at a true metropolitan scale is a massive validation that commercial drone delivery is moving past the “gimmick” phase and into everyday logistics. It’s also proof that drone delivery doesn’t have to be dominated by the giants like Google.
Are you a drone professional based in Oklahoma? Will you be applying for one of Manna’s 1,000 new roles? I want to hear from you! Sound off in the comments below!
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