The Vertical Space

An in-depth discussion on UTM with Chris Kucera, co-founder of OneSky, discussing the fascinating and complex world of UAS traffic management, or UTM.  UTM is a rapidly evolving area – it’s done differently throughout the world with various degrees of application and value. Listen to what UTM is, how its formulated, its value, when its needed, and when its not.  Those of you who can understand the complexity and value of UTM will not only be better equipped to deploy, realize value from, and invest in UTM providers, but will better operate your OEM and service businesses going forward. Listen to the importance of operators sharing information, including positional and surveillance information – and the integration and synthesis of this information, and how essential this information sharing is to an effective, safe system.  Listen to the different types of UTM service providers and how UTM is deployed and by whom – and how they’re deployed in the US and throughout the world, and an important discussion of the EU’s U-space.   We cover what data is needed for different parts of the UTM process where Chris explains the data, its source, value, and application.  It’s great hearing how OneSky started, it’s unique advantages, and how they expect to provide value and make money in the years to come.  We thank Chris for a terrific discussion! 

Welcome to our conversation with Svilen Rangelov, Co-Founder and CEO of Dronamics, a business with the goal to change how the world moves goods.We start with a discussion around the broader drone/UAS market and then the cargo drone delivery market – including use-cases and early demand, challenges and opportunities, and the overall landscape. Then we talk about Dronamics, the problems they’re solving for customers near and long term with their middle mile solutions. Listen to how Svilen believes they’ll be providing a better and less expensive solution than today’s alternatives, especially with their initial focus on underserved markets. We also discuss his challenges and opportunities and why middle mile vs. last mile solutions, where last mile are where many others are focused. We also discuss their vehicle, the Black Swan, and how they plan to be an OEM, an operator, and manager of droneports. Listen to the really interesting requirements and capabilities of the droneports, the costs and challenges, and how they believe these droneports are an essential part of their competitive advantage and customer value. Svilen also discusses his conversations with logistics companies and their focus on cost. We also discuss his work with European regulators and the regulatory approvals, including for design verification. Many thanks to Svilen and Dronamics for a substantial discussion!

Today’s topic is the exciting world of pilot training innovation, an area that has become a high priority to militaries and airlines around the world given the pilot shortage that the industry is grappling with.  Helping us examine this topic is Ryan Riley, a retired USAF F-16 fighter pilot who most recently led Pilot Training Next, an initiative that leveraged advanced training technologies and learning methods to cut the USAF pilot training in half. Ryan also currently happens to be going through training with a major U.S. airline which we also discuss in our conversation.  The USAF is short approximately 2,000 pilots, which is about a third more than its annual theoretical capacity to produce pilots. At the same time, major airlines are accelerating their pilot hiring and are signaling concern about insufficient pilot supply. This has sparked a wave of flight training innovation to solve two major pain points: training time and throughput. Ryan walked us through the current Air Force pilot training pipeline, what prompted urgency to revisit the decade old training formula, what innovations the Air Force experimented with, and what the outcomes were. We talked about the pros and cons of mixed reality and synthetic training, and the importance of student-centric and distributed learning in both military and civil training environments.Naturally, we also discussed the controversial topic of the 1,500 hour rule, the related hours versus competencies dilemma, single pilot operations, and then extrapolated the discussion to autonomous systems, and how novel concepts in flight training might help the industry think through building trust in autonomous wingmen or virtual copilots. And to stay true to our roots, Ryan highlights what remaining pain points exist for innovators to go and solve.Ryan recently retired from the USAF where he flew F-16s, both operationally as a fighter pilot with multiple combat deployments as well as a Thunderbird pilot. In addition to flying, Ryan’s career included a number of leadership roles including deputy division chief 19th Air Force, Chief of Offense at the 613 Air Operations Center, contingency and crisis action planner, Pacific Air Forces lead technology integrator, and most recently Detachment 24 Commander leading Pilot Training Next. 

How often do you get to have a conversation with Bob Pearce, the Associate Administrator for NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate? Well, you do today – and you’ll really enjoy the talk. Bob discusses how NASA synthesizes a picture of the future, in collaboration with thought leaders, and helps to remove the challenges to make that future happen. We take a dive into sustainability, the importance of getting to net zero, and the three strategies to achieving a fully sustainable aviation system. Bob discusses where NASA will and won’t get involved in AAM – including how NASA is helping to facilitate a safe, high density air traffic system. We discuss what drove the creation of the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) 20 plus years ago – why it didn’t work then, but why AAM may work today – including the level of automation we have today and what can evolve in the coming years – including the timeline for potentially fully remote pilots – to increase the level of AAM affordability.We discuss UTM and Sky for All – what it is and NASA’s role and timeline – and again the role of automation given the density of traffic that will be coming. Bob then discusses the sustainable flight demonstrator – why and how it was created it – and the cost-sharing partnership with Boeing – and he also discusses some of the questions that have evolved since that recent announcement. Given Bob’s role with NextGen, we had had to ask about the successes and disappointments of NextGen – and his selection of one standout program. Finally, listen to Bob’s recommendations and advice to innovators.Many thanks to Bob for joining us on The Vertical Space. 

Our guest today is Charlton Evans, founder and CEO of End State Solutions, a firm focused on certification and airworthiness for drones and other forms of advanced air mobility. Given some of the recent milestones and rumors about drone regulations in the United States, we thought you would appreciate a discussion on the hot topics in FAA drone regulations from a true subject matter expert, whose firm recently helped Matternet receive the industry’s first drone type certification. We covered a lot of ground with Charlton, starting with the first unmanned aircraft type certifications in the restricted category in 2013 and ways in which those operations failed to properly address the needs of the oil&gas industry at the time. We then followed regulatory and industry milestones to present day, discovering along the way the remaining challenges and opportunities facing the drone industry.Charlton assigns responsibility to both the FAA and the industry for the state of commercial drone adoption among enterprises. Since 2013, there have been fewer champions within the FAA doing the heavy lift to tackle advanced air mobility and drive integration of drones into the national airspace system – resulting in a natural bureaucratic filter to innovation at the FAA.  At the same time, the industry is still notorious for not coming to the table with fully developed products and concepts of operations. The gap between rigorous safety-centric FAA processes and the spirit of rapid innovation borrowed from the tech world still exists but is definitely closing as both the industry and regulators gain more experience from ongoing projects and initial operations. There is a ton of insights from this deep dive with Charlton, but let us highlight a few: you’ll hear what Charlton means by “any change is a change” or “ there is no certification by obvious”, how the FAA needs to get more comfortable with an appropriate assessment of risk, what three things type certification applicants need to bring to the table, how appropriate the durability & reliability type certification process really is, the black hole of 21.17(b) certification, in what ways drones and Light Sport Aircraft are similar, opportunities for innovation, and of course advice for entrepreneurs. As mentioned, Charlton Evans is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of End State Solutions, a firm focused on certification and airworthiness for AAM, drone delivery, HAPS and RPAS. Charlton was a Harrier Pilot and Tactical Air Controller in the Marine Corps and still flies for business and pleasure as a commercial pilot. Charlton has led several successful civil and military drone certifications as well as historic BVLOS flight operations. Recently End State Solutions assisted with the FAA type certification of the Matternet M2 delivery drone. Charlton also led historic linear infrastructure and disaster response flights with the type certified ScanEagle UAS that resulted in the induction of ScanEagle N202SE into the Smithsonian Institute in 2016. Today End State Solutions is considered a trusted advisor by both industry and FAA, engaged across the spectrum of Type, Production, Operational approvals as well as regulatory affairs – building relationships that build trust and products that are trusted through certificationWe hope you’ll enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

Enjoy this important discussion with Admiral Mike Rogers. Admiral Rogers served 37 years in the United States Navy, rising to the rank of four star Admiral and served as Commander, U.S. Cyber Command and Director, National Security Agency.  We open our conversation with a geostrategic perspective of the world. Mike  discusses what the next conflict may look like, how we can prepare for that conflict, and what technology may become more important. Also what we’ll have to prepare for – and potentially tolerate – from future conflicts. Mike’s discussion of Ukraine is equally fascinating and how it has characteristics of the first World War. We discuss the use of unmanned vehicles and their impact on the war.  And listen to what technology, aviation, and AAM is important for the future.We discuss how scale, speed, and efficiency are what we’ll need today and in the future – and how industry has to help us get off the few exquisite platforms of today – given the needs of the future. And how the private sector has an important role with innovation for future warfighting needs. Of course we discuss cyber – the threats – how it’s changing – how common cyber events are - and what industry can be doing relating to cyber. We also discuss cyber and the war in Ukraine – and how to integrate the capabilities of the government and the private sector – to build resilience.Thank you Admiral Mike Rogers for an excellent conversation. 

The conversation that follows is with Justin Steinke, Senior Vice President of Commercial Business at Spright. As a senior executive of one of the more sophisticated drone operators in the market, Justin knows the drone industry inside and out. He is just as comfortable discussing macro industry trends as he is getting into the weeds of enabling technologies. Needless to say, we did both. We start with a long discussion on the state of the commercial drone market: the remaining unaddressed pain points, technology gaps, enterprise adoption, upcoming market inflection points, the regulatory situation, and the best practices employed by successful drone businesses. Throughout the conversation you'll hear Justin highlight the importance of bringing aviation expertise and mindset as a prerequisite of success, and how this is still a rare find in the industry.We also touched on the relative pros and cons of B2B and B2C drone delivery business models in terms of time to market and ease of proving a safety case. And before taking a dive into the medical delivery use case, Justin shared what the Part 107 BVLOS waiver process looks like and what went into their 300 page submission to the FAA.And as we talked about the medical delivery use case, Justin went into a much appreciated level of detail describing the CONOPS, all of the associated elements, value proposition for hospitals and communities, and other operational and product details that are often overlooked. Towards the end of the conversation, we also talked about UTM, detect and avoid, drone type certification, operational approvals, and of course advice to entrepreneurs who are considering entering the drone market.Justin Steinke is the Senior Vice President of Commercial Business at Spright where he is focused on delivering scalable unmanned solutions into medical use cases as well as providing turnkey inspection services to electric utilities. With 20 years of aviation experience and start up leadership, Justin is highly experienced in system design, manufacturing, analytics solutions and communication systems for the DoD and UAS industries. Prior to Spright, Justin led teams at Volair, LLC, GE Aviation AiRXOS, Data Into Knowledge (DN2K) and Simulyze, Inc., across engineering, product management and strategic business development. Justin holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aviation Technology & Finance and is a Commercial Rated Pilot and former Flight Instructor.

Geoff Bower, Chief Engineer at Archer Aviation, discusses designing and commercializing eVTOL aircraft. Topics include design tradeoffs, productivity requirements, battery electric vs. autonomous aircraft, economics, certification processes, and differences between FAA and EASA. Insights shared on developing robust supply chains, urban air mobility, and future advancements in battery pack technology.

Today’s discussion is with Mykel Kochenderfer, Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University. He is the director of the Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory (SISL), conducting research on advanced algorithms and analytical methods for the design of robust decision making systems.When one of our previous guests recommended we speak with Mykel, he said that Mykel led the ACAS-X effort (a very successful and recent airborne collision avoidance system for our listeners who may not know) and would have a really cool view on practical implementation and validation of autonomy.Mykel talks about building highly robust systems that interact with humans in the real world, he discusses the team behind Airborne Collision Avoidance System X (or ACAS-X), what drove the need for ACAS-X, how it was accomplished, and its terrific results. You will hear about the practical implementation, validation, and implementation of autonomy in aviation and AAM. His discussion around autonomy is important for everyone to hear, and that although elements of autonomy are a long way off in aviation and advanced air mobility , he has confidence that AI and autonomy can be applied to many areas of aviation and advanced air mobility. Also we have a great discussion around simulation, its importance, and the different types of simulation.  

Dr. Will Roper, a seasoned physicist and foreign policy strategist, dives into the future of warfare and defense technology. He discusses how the Ukraine conflict is reshaping military strategies and the vital role of digital transformation in aerospace. Roper emphasizes the need for innovative approaches in the defense industry, especially regarding drones and commercial technologies. He also highlights the complexities of U.S.-China relations and the significance of supply chain resilience for national security in an evolving global landscape.