Business View Civil and Municipal | September 2022

52 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9 Moore attests, “I’m a firm believer in a regional economy, which is why we work very closely with Cape May County and other counties here in the southern region to build out this aviation cluster. We see aviation as a great growth opportunity – but we’re not aviation all the time. We also work with our small businesses, our workforce development providers, our academic institutions, and we work on redevelopment projects in urban areas like Atlantic City. Where the sexiness comes in is with the aviation sector, which is going through another generational change. The jet engine took aviation to the next level back in the 1950s and now we’re ready to go to the next gen.” The next gen is Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), an emerging new aviation technology that will revolutionize short distance air transportation by using electrically powered, vertical-take-off- and-landing aircraft (eVTOL), offers the Atlantic County region a significant opportunity to build and strengthen New Jersey’s research and development capabilities according to a study by Deloitte Consulting, LLP. According to Deloitte, the growing AAM sector is projected to create more than 25,000 jobs and $152 million in annual state tax revenue for New Jersey over the next 15 years. Moore believes that this is a fabulous opportunity to build South Jersey into an aviation research & development leader. Vertical takeoff and landing with electrified propulsion… air taxis to move people. “It’s coming in our lifetime,” Moore says. “We’re having conversations with 10 of the top companies in this sector to try to attract them to Atlantic County for their R & D and to become part of what we’re doing. We’ve actually worked with the Airport Authority to designate Atlantic City International Airport as an aviation testbed for testing aviation technology such as autonomous flights where there is no pilot at all.” And the vision and opportunities extend far beyond that… for Atlantic County, New Jersey, the