From college lab to $73B market: Startup powers next wave of drones

BALTIMORE — They deliver packages, inspect power lines, patrol remote areas, find missing people and increasingly are deployed on the battlefield.

Drones, including those used by consumers, businesses and the military, accounted for a $73 billion global industry last year, some estimates show, with the market likely to more than double by 2030.

Daanish Maqbool saw the potential of the booming drone industry while pursuing a doctorate in aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland. That’s when he began researching ways to improve propulsion systems for aircraft, including UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles. Engines had become one of the biggest bottlenecks in mass-producing certain aircraft.

Now heading North American Wave Engine Corp. in Baltimore, a company spun out of the unive