Manna Aero, the Dublin-born drone delivery company, is planting its first full-scale U.S. flag in Tulsa, betting big on the city as its stateside manufacturing and operations hub. City and state officials turned out Wednesday for an on-site demo where company leaders sketched out a future of neighborhood launch pads, local assembly lines and buzzing quadcopters over suburban streets. The announcement is being sold as both a jobs win and a national proving ground for scaling drone deliveries across American neighborhoods, even as nearby residents and aviation watchers mull the finer points of noise, safety and flight paths.
Oklahoma continues to be a place where innovative companies choose to invest and grow.
— Governor Kevin Stitt (@GovStitt) July 9, 2026
Great to welcome @MannaAero to Tulsa as they launch their U.S. expansion. I enjoyed getting a firsthand look at the drone technology they’re using to transform the future of delivery by… pic.twitter.com/dPYWnRplaL
According to Manna, the company expects to create more than 1,000 jobs in Tulsa over the next three years across manufacturing, operations and support roles. The firm plans to build a U.S. manufacturing base in the city to power its American rollout, while Ireland will remain its global headquarters for research and engineering. Tulsa is set to function as the central operational base for U.S. growth. In that blog post, the company casts the Tulsa launch as a long-term commitment and a market-by-market playbook it hopes to repeat in other parts of the country.
Manna's Plans and Timeline
Founder and CEO Bobby Healy told TechCrunch that construction on a Tulsa factory is already underway and that manufacturing there could begin in roughly a year. He said the company aims to grow an initial U.S. operations team to about 200-300 people over the next 12 months and is targeting the start of customer flights for partners such as DoorDash, McDonald’s and Uber Eats within weeks. TechCrunch also reported that Manna plans to deploy roughly 30-40 small launch bases across Tulsa to keep routes short and boost drone utilization. If those timelines hold, Manna wants to evolve from one-off demos to routine commercial service across the city by mid-2027.
Launch Sites and Neighborhood Questions
On the ground, the company has applied for city permits for a launch site at 1631 E. 15th St. near Cherry Street, and local demonstrations have already stirred neighbor concerns about noise and hospital flight paths, according to Tulsa Flyer. Cherry Street business owners who heard the buzzing during tests say they are still sorting out what daily drone runs might mean for customers and street life. City and state officials at the event, for their part, highlighted Tulsa’s aviation ecosystem and the SAFE-T radar network that supports beyond-visual-line-of-sight flights. The permit request and early community feedback are shaping up as the first real-world test of where these micro-hubs can go and how they will be regulated in residential and business districts.
Regulatory Roadmap
Regulatory clearance remains a central hurdle. Industry coverage notes that Manna is expanding its U.S. leadership team and working closely with regulators as it steps up American operations, according to Autonomy Global. Local reporting points to Tulsa’s SAFE-T initiative and federal tech-hub funding as key support structures for testing commercial drone routes, Public Radio Tulsa reported. At the federal level, routine paid drone delivery still depends on a mix of FAA approvals and operator standards, which analysts say will require customized waivers and airspace agreements for each metro area. The next public checkpoints are likely to be permit decisions, any formal FAA filings and the appearance of more detailed hiring announcements.
For Tulsa residents, the practical clues will show up in job boards and city records. Flight operator and operations positions are already listed on recruitment sites such as Manna's careers page, and future council filings will spell out where additional hubs are allowed to open. City officials say no state-level incentives were part of the deal, framing Manna’s choice as a product of Tulsa’s aerospace infrastructure and public-private collaboration. In the meantime, expect more test flights, public meetings and hiring news as the company works to turn a headline-grabbing announcement into an everyday service overhead.
