#73 Jeff Luckett, UPS Flight Forward: An inside perspective on early adoption of UAS and AAM in cargo

Welcome back to The Vertical Space! In this episode, we’re thrilled to bring you a conversation with Jeff Luckett, President and founding member of UPS Flight Forward, a subsidiary of UPS. Since our podcast's inception in 2021, we’ve featured numerous OEMs and service providers from both advanced air mobility and traditional aviation. However, it’s not often that we get to hear directly from the buyers and industry leaders driving the demand for these cutting-edge technologies. Today, we dive deep with one of the key figures in the industry.

Jeff shares his journey leading UPS Flight Forward, where he’s been instrumental in evaluating over 850 different companies to identify those best suited to meet UPS’s unique challenges and opportunities. He reveals the criteria used to differentiate the companies that made the cut from those that didn’t, offering advice to any company looking to collaborate with major players like UPS.

Throughout our conversation, we explore the crucial role of cargo-centric operations in the future of advanced air mobility. Jeff discusses why he believes the cargo market is poised to materialize more significantly in the near term compared to the passenger taxi market. He also emphasizes the importance of understanding the specific needs of organizations like UPS when marketing new technologies and services.

Jeff delves into the operational aspects, explaining why what happens on the ground is just as vital as what occurs in the air. We discuss the anticipated timeline for the introduction and scaling of future aircraft within UPS, UPS’s approach to insourcing versus outsourcing, and his thoughts on integrating new aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS).