Jake Pautsch, CEO of a Davenport-based company called DIFCO, Incorporated, says at first it would be a takeoff and landing site for medical helicopters because it's centrally located among six hospitals.
"Because in a situation where a medical helicopter encountered bad weather, and obviously if you're transporting a patient, it's not ideal to be taking them to an airport that's very, very far away from a hospital."
The location, at 3050 3rd Avenue in Rock Island, also is far enough away from buildings and other obstacles to provide a safe landing site.
And sometime in the future the vertiport could host battery-powered drones.
"So it would be used by any company that wants to develop their own drone program - whether that be a hospital to deliver medications, or whether it be a company like Amazon or Walgreens that wants to deliver their products."
Eventually Pautsch hopes to build a solar array that would provide electricity to power the un-manned aircraft.