In 2026, DeMarius Simmons took two decades of military drone intelligence and turned it into a classroom. The veteran and award-winning drone innovator launched the Southern Drone Academy, the education arm of his Southern Drone Company — training teens and adults to earn their FAA wings and build businesses in the drone economy.
Based in Douglasville, Georgia, Simmons has spent more than 20 years working in drones and unmanned systems, intelligence, and geospatial operations supporting military, government, and civilian missions. Now he is using that expertise to open doors for the next generation — and to prove that the drone economy belongs to everyone.
From the Battlefield to the Back Forty
Simmons’ résumé reads like a masterclass in unmanned systems. He served as a Combat Intelligence Augmentation Team Site Lead and Senior All-Source Analyst at BAE Systems, and he developed a proprietary workflow and algorithm to count and inventory containerized pine seedlings from RGB drone data — the first person in the United States to do so.
His Southern Drone Company serves an impressive range of clients: precision agriculture (stand counts, weed mapping, crop and forest health), cinematic drone light shows, GIS mapping, and government contracting for agencies and military organizations alike.
The Academy: Licenses, Skills, Livelihoods
The Southern Drone Academy offers FAA Part 107 exam preparation, hands-on flight instruction, safety and compliance education, and workforce development — serving individuals, schools, businesses, government agencies, and military organizations.
What sets Simmons apart is the mission underneath the machinery. This is workforce development with a purpose: preparing teens and adults not just to fly drones, but to build businesses around them. It is a fitting second act for a man who also holds a master’s degree in Marriage, Family & Couples Counseling and a bachelor’s in Forensic Psychology — a technologist who never lost sight of the human being behind the controls.
Why It Matters
The commercial drone economy keeps soaring, but access to training remains uneven. Simmons is closing that gap from Douglasville outward — one Part 107 license, one young pilot, one new drone business at a time.
For Simmons, the Academy is about more than flight hours. It is about ownership — giving young people a credential that leads directly to income, whether through a drone services business, agricultural contracts, or government work. In an industry where the technology often arrives before the training, he is making sure his community isn’t left on the ground.
Learn more at https://southerndronecompany.com/.
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