ROME, N.Y. -- Skydome, a building that was once a hangar for B-52 Bombers, is now the largest FAA designated indoor drone testing site in the country.

Griffiss Institute President/CEO Heather Hage talked about how military, government, and private sector businesses can now take advantage of a space designed to advance technology in an ever growing drone based world.

"We have deep roots and absolutely unrivaled potential to be known as the premier global destination to design, build, test, and deploy safe and reliable automatous systems that are mission assured, and secure by design," said Hage. 

Almost $14 million have been invested in this site, but Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente expects to see a return on that investment.

"We have numerous companies here right now that are testing and doing so, and along with that comes jobs, and along with that comes also you know more attention to what can be done here and what can be developed here."

Unmanned Aerial Systems technology company NUAIR is already in the process of utilizing the space to advance drone technologies. NUAIR CEO Ken Stewart explains why technology advancements are at a critical stage in the development of drone capabilities.

"We have a system called ATM Air Traffic Management for manned aircraft, but we don’t have a system for unmanned aircraft, and so how do we integrate these aircraft into a piloted environment, and so what we’ve been working on is all the technologies, sensors, infrastructure and all that that has to be put in place to safely integrate that and integrate unmanned with manned aircraft," said Stewart.

The walls of Skydome are made with a foil and corrugated foam. They look pretty cool, but they also serve a purpose. AX Enterprize Co-Owner M.C. Chruscicki’s company was involved in designing Skydome, and talked about why the walls were constructed with drone communications in mind.

"Those signals, whether they be Wi-Fi or 5G will bounce off of that tin foil, which is emulating or simulating a building in a city, and then the blue is where the signal…it’s absorbing the signal, and you’re going to have those same types of characteristics in a city," said Chruscicki.

Much of that technology is already being tested using drones in a 50-mile corridor between Rome and Syracuse.