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In 2015, maxon Group began receiving requests to create aviation products that hadn’t yet been developed.

It was through these challenging requests that their team began, in the Swiss valley of Obwalden, to prepare for the future engineering demands of the advanced aviation industry.

Roger Villiger, the Head of the Aerospace Business Unit, Roman Meier, the Project Manager for Aerospace and Marco Sicher, the Business Development Engineer for the Aerospace from maxon tell us how one of the oldest and most reliable motor companies in the world began developing specialised products for the drone market.

“We are not looking for the next cool pilot, but we want to take another approach and plan the lower airspace together with the municipalities in the region and the companies to have a solid and sustainable regional development”, explained Dino Keljalic, the Infrastructure & Transport Strategist for Region Örebro Iäm (Mälardalsrådet).

During our interview, he introduced us to one of Sweden’s most well-connected transportation and logistics locations and explained what they’re doing to develop and build drone operations with private and public stakeholders.

“No one wants to invest in a business that does a million deliveries a day if you lose money in every delivery. So, we need to get to rational businesses that are always investable. So, that's why our focus is on generating a profit on our operation”, explains Bobby Healy, the CEO and Founder of Manna Drone Delivery in our latest interview.

If drone organisations can start to generate profit in one location, they can use those same processes to scale operations in other areas as well, which can bring investment into their businesses during this economic downturn.

The advanced air mobility industry is on track to become an entirely new ecosystem within society that will shape a wave of unparalleled innovation during our lifetimes. It will change how we produce our food, how our blue light forces respond to emergencies and how hospitals receive life-saving materials. Still, the drone industry, although relatively young, is overwhelmingly male-dominated.

Yet, we see courageous women breaking through the glass ceiling and taking on critical roles as leaders shaping this new industry.

That’s why DroneTalks began hosting the event series “Women behind the Drone Revolution”, which features a series of talks with female leaders working to co-create the advanced air mobility industry.

The event series aims to showcase examples of exceptional leadership and encourage young women to enter into an exciting yet sometimes intimidating industry. It also allows current leaders to learn how to hire more women and create more diverse work environments where everyone can succeed and feel welcome. Finally, this series also features some entertaining stories from the lives of women in leadership positions who share unique stories about what it feels like to work with drones.

Autonomous advanced air mobility is technologically possible today, and from a business point of view, it makes sense.

Is it possible to replace traditional transportation methods like shuttle buses to the airport in the near future?

Juliana Carolina Kiraly Thomaz Rodrigues, the Head of Business Development Europe at Eve Air Mobility, explained during our interview how as soon as you can remove the pilot from the cockpit, you can reduce the operational cost and then add more seats to the cabin. This not only lowers the overall ticket cost but makes air transportation more accessible to those who need it.

Still, this is the future of advanced air mobility. What does the present look like? How are current use cases in Brazil and Norway pointing us towards the near and far future? And, lastly, how realistic are the current goals compared to general societal acceptance?

Justin Steinke, the SVP of Commercial Business at Spright, explains how their organisation works with drone manufacturers. In the interview, he explains another common problem we've heard about for years, which is the mentality that ‘my organisation can build an end-to-end solution for the drone industry’, which sounds great, but it's simply not possible.

Although drones have the potential to provide reliable, fast, efficient, cheap and safe medical deliveries, most people struggle to understand how difficult it is to implement.

To better understand this, just ask yourself how this is going to work. You already have a drone that can carry the medical supplies (a challenge in itself).

But where is it going to land? On the existing infrastructure that is connected to the hospital? Will the people working in the lab have to walk to the landing site to get the samples from the drone? How far will they have to walk? How much of their time is going to be taken up by this process?

A2Z Drone Delivery, a technology provider that designs and builds hardware for the drone delivery industry and initially gained traction with its drone winch, a mechanical device used in various drone-based applications.

CTO Evan Hertafeld mentioned during our recent interview that their customer base consists of those exploring futuristic concepts like commercial food delivery and those focusing on current applications, like intersite logistics.

The company plans to grow horizontally, broadening its reach to peripheral technology and potentially vertically as a service provider. A2Z Drone Delivery's lean structure allows for adaptability and quick decision-making.

Jordi Salvador Bernadí, CTO and Business Development lead at Barcelona Drone Center, spoke about his team’s operations and an upcoming course on UAS regulatory and SORA frameworks during Amsterdam Drone Week. The team has recently developed sandboxes for 4G and 5G communication and BVLOS testing, enabling autonomous flights through telecommunications connectivity. They've also demonstrated a drone's ability to switch between radio and 4G communication links. Companies can have their drones tested by the centre's team, receiving data and findings without needing to travel to Barcelona again.

Digitalisation plays a key role in testing, aiding in developing new technologies and understanding their functionality within regulatory frameworks. The one-week intensive course on UAS regulations and the SORA methodology, created in collaboration with Jordi's team, offers a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter, practical demonstrations, and networking opportunities.

Current trends in the drone industry include BVLOS operations with autonomous systems, "drone-in-a-box" concepts, and networks of drones deployed across locations to perform various tasks. The industry will likely see growth in regulatory frameworks, safety measures, and technology integration.

Thomas Neubauer, the VP of Business Development and Innovations at TEOCO and co-founder of AirborneRF and Han de Glint from KPN, explain in our latest interview how challenging the implementation of any sophisticated BVLOS operations are when it comes to flight approval requests. During the interview, they also cover: - A recent case study utilising connectivity data in the Netherlands - Current infrastructure needs for drones - Utilising connectivity data from MNOs for airborne drone operations - Standardisation efforts that extend past the telecommunications industry to the aviation industry - How cross-industry collaboration between telecommunication companies and drone companies provides a faster route to approvals from aviation authorities

Sebastian Törsleff, the director of UTM at HHLA Sky, joined us for the interview to explain how they began to develop its own technology for industrial drone use cases. Their portfolio now comprises different drone types like multicopters of different sizes, VTOLs and autonomous mobile robots. During the interview, he speaks about: - Command and control centres for BVLOS drone operations - Harmonising technologies to grow U-space capabilities - The challenges of harmonisation

The first edition of the SORA methodology works well in practice, which means the upcoming changes for SORA 2.5 incorporate a number of lessons learned from real-world implementations globally.

The first lesson that JARUS learned over the course of SORA 2.0 is that the next version of the methodology needs to increase usability.

Joerg Dittrich explained to us that JARUS members will begin by clarifying the wording to describe what’s expected of SORA stakeholders. They also plan to produce additional guidance material for several processes of the methodology that have proven difficult to some operators.

The expectations for SORA 2.5 are high, and Joerg and the team are committed to doing their absolute best to respond to each of the comments received and improve the document as far as possible.

“Switzerland is kind of the Silicon Valley of drones”, explained Herbert Weirather the CEO of the medical drone delivery start-up Jedsy in our recent interview.

He told us how the Swiss mentality and the infrastructure help empower his team to move beyond traditional drone operations like package drop-offs in wide-open, potentially muddy areas (or even when it’s dark outside).

Instead, he wanted higher-quality delivery standards for medical deliveries, which is why Jedsy developed window and balcony landing pads with a specialised mailbox on top of the drone, allowing hospital staff to access lab deliveries without leaving their area, eliminating the need for long walks or advance notifications.

During the interview, Sascha Oliver Schott talks about how EASA is facilitating a mutual understanding between telecommunications and drone organisations to support them as they look for solutions to enable airborne flight connectivity at scale. He also spoke about recent repetitive eVTOL demonstrations across Europe and how these can foster widescale acceptance.

He also spoke about how drone organisations are fostering the wide-scale acceptance of drones through repetitive eVTOL demonstrations throughout Europe. He ended our interview by speaking about autonomous aircraft operations and when we’re likely to see them in the future.

During Amsterdam Drone Week 2023, we got the chance to sit down and interview EASA’s Drones Project Manager (Open and Specific Category), Natale di Rubbo.

Freefly is one of the leading UAV manufacturers and designers used in the cinema industry with appearances in some of the biggest films in the industry, including the Wolf of Wallstreet as Maxwell describes to us. They specialise in designing, manufacturing and marketing different camera movement systems for drones including stabilisers.

During Amsterdam Drone Week 2023, we got the chance to sit down and interview EASA’s Drones Programme Manager Maria Algar Ruiz. During the interview, Maria gave us some exclusive insights into the thought process behind the implementation of new U-space airspaces from EASA’s perspective and what we can do as an industry to begin to come together to make wide-scale U-space airspaces a reality in the near future (along with what challenges we’ll need to overcome).

Maria also shared that EASA's workshop at Amsterdam Drone Week, titled "Lessons learned of initial U-Space airspace designations and first SSP & single CISP certification projects" brought together industry stakeholders to enable the drone industry ecosystem to share their experiences with what’s working and not working to empower the co-creation of future regulations.

She also hinted that new initiatives, workshops and webinars for upcoming regulations would soon be launched. These would help tackle the challenges our young industry is facing like the upcoming rapid digitisation, which will impact the creation of new U-spaces.

We had the chance to sit down again with Maria Algar Ruiz, Drones Programme Manager at EASA during Amsterdam Drone Week 2023. During the interview, she spoke about the need to harmonise civilian and military drone certification efforts because of how fast their political importance has grown over time.

During the interview, she also talked about the opportunity that harmonisation brings, so military drone manufacturers don’t need to undergo certification by each individual military authority, but could instead get something similar to the type certificate that civilian drones are able to obtain in order to operate across multiple European member states.

We had the opportunity to talk with Kai Bauer, the Principal Advisor for Sustainable Mobility at EASA, who explained the various sustainability initiatives and research at EASA that are aimed at scaling the drone industry while also prioritising societal acceptance.

Kai emphasises that societal acceptance is crucial to the drone industry's new economy, and it's essential to engage with citizens to understand their concerns before wide-scale adoption occurs. EASA's study showed 83% of European Union member state respondents felt positive about drones, but concerns about privacy, sustainability and noise pollution continued to come up. To address these concerns, EASA organises workshops like the one at Amsterdam Drone Week 2023, titled "Societal acceptance revisited: Collaborative actions to address noise, sustainability, and other citizen concerns".

Kai concluded our interview with three key takeaways for the drone industry: (1) develop concrete actions to tackle societal acceptance, (2) establish common standards and (3) ensure collaboration is at the core of all drone industry innovation efforts, encompassing all diverse perspectives that range from organisations to citizens.

We had the chance to sit down with EASA’s Drones Project Manager (Certified Category) Giuseppe Scannapieco, who told us about the shift from crewed to uncrewed aircraft at scale. He began by mentioning how the simple shift from taking the pilot from the air to the ground isn’t a substantial one, but you’re still missing an important element when it comes to the chain of safety. That’s why EASA is careful when it comes to how they enable these approaches and the regulatory frameworks that goes along with them.

We had the chance to interview Peter Kistler, who explained to us why Switzerland is an incredible place for innovative drone organisations to get their foot in the door to the exciting and developing European market. He explained to us that, in terms of revenue potential, Bern is a diverse urban environment that allows drone organisations to go beyond UAV-supported deliveries, encompassing industrial applications for various sectors, such as medical devices and watch manufacturing.

These use cases include warehouse inspections and the potential to streamline supply chain management, showcasing the city's versatile opportunities for the drone industry to step in and support the innovative environment.

Cristiano Baldoni has played an instrumental in the development of the Italian U-space implementation efforts through his work at the ENAV Group. ENAV is heavily involved in the international air traffic management system in Italy and plays a key role in creating the Single European Sky, which is an initiative aimed at harmonising air traffic management across Europe.

Cristiano Baldoni has directly contributed to ENAV's involvement in the SESAR initiative, which dates back to the inception of the ENAV Group in 2003. He has also led the organisation’s participation in the programme since 2004 and played a key role in delivering the 2008 ATM Master Plan in Rome.

In this podcast, he covers the state of the drone industry in Italy including new developments in U-space airspaces (or lack thereof).

What will change for the Swiss drone market now that Regulations 2019/947 and 2019/945 have been adopted to harmonise with the European Union regulatory framework?

Lorenzo Murzilli, CEO of Murzilli Consulting, highlights the outcomes of regulatory harmonisation for Swiss and European drone companies, including operators and manufacturers. He also explains what commercial drone organisations can do to capitalise on these benefits before the transition period is over.

We interviewed Okeoma Moronu, Head of Global Aviation Regulatory Affairs at Zipline. She talks about how Zipline operates distribution centres in various African countries, Japan and the United States. She emphasises that while they're most famous for blood deliveries in Rwanda, they transport much more to serve communities worldwide and reduce reliance on wheel-based transportation.

Okeoma also shares her insights on how Zipline navigates the complexities of different regulations in each country and the importance of partnerships with corporations such as Toyota and the Ministry of Health.

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During Commercial UAV Expo, our CEO, Eszter Kovacs, sat down to talk with Wes Ryan, a Program Manager at NASA's NARI (or the NASA Aeronautics Research Institute). Together, they discussed the public's view of advanced air mobility, why regulations are so important to implement as the industry grows and matures, how regulators are keeping the public safe while speeding up regulatory processes to support innovation, and how public perception of uncrewed aerial vehicles is changing.

Our Co-Founder Lorenzo Murzilli interviewed Armin Ambühl, CTO of Wingtra. Armin explains how Wingtra helps customers answer crucial questions to solve core business problems by constructing digital twins thanks to aerial imaging for example.

Armin also shares his thoughts on the regulation and adoption differences between the U.S. and Europe. He also stresses the importance of BVLOS operations in scaling the industry as a whole. Armin then goes into the heart of what many drone companies do wrong and how they need to look at drones in order to succeed long-term.

Get an inside look at the innovative solutions of Fixar in this interview with Co-Founder Yulia Druzhnikova. Discover her passion for the industry and her unique perspective as a female leader driving strategic decisions. Learn more from her about how the value proposition and client-focused approaches led the company to sign international partnerships.

Their success story is not only about the tech; they are also dedicated to educating their partners, the users and the cities. Yulia also provides a glimpse into the future of the drone industry and the exciting new models Fixar is developing.

SkyGrid is a leading provider of solutions such as Airspace awareness and flight operations and fleet management. The company's main focus is to enable drone flights in a safe way powered by artificial intelligence.

In this interview, Chief Strategy Officer Zehra Akbar discusses the company's work with partners such as NASA, Wisk, and Lift Aircraft. Skygrid's goal is to enable the safe operation of drones and eVTOL companies in the same airspace for various use cases, including search and rescue missions, solar farm inspections, and remote launch and planning. How? For example with their advanced algorithm for deconfliction!

In this video, we sit down with Joshua Ogden, Co-Founder and CEO at AVSS. They develop unguided parachutes for the impact reduction and safe recovery of failed drones with integrated automatic trigger systems and flight termination systems. They're also progressing with the next step: guided parachute systems for precise GPS landing.

This enables pilots to fly over populated areas or beyond the line of sight without worrying about safety. Joshua mentions the two types of customers they work with and also talks about the work they have done with regulators in Canada and Europe to ensure the safe and efficient use of their technology.