# Driving UTM Innovation: Insights from Aloft

- Event: Xpress ’24
- Published: May 29, 2024
- Length: 9:02
- Watch: https://nestgen.org/library/watch/yjVsX_d-Vvc/

> The transcript of a recorded NestGen session, for reading or for use with an AI tool. It comes from the video's
> captions; automatic captions can mishear names and terms.

## About this session

This episode of #NestGen Xpress features Jon Hegranes, the CEO & Founder of Aloft, one of the industry-leading platforms delivering UTM solutions and fleet management services for uncrewed aircraft systems worldwide.

This episode talks about how the various partnerships forged by Aloft recently have helped remote drone operators fly more efficiently.

Furthermore, being a part of various rulemaking committees, like the BVLOS ARC and the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Detection and Mitigation Systems Aviation Rulemaking Committee, Jon highlights the key insights from these committees' reports and his perspective on the future of BVLOS operations.

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## Transcript

**[0:10]** hello and welcome back to another very exciting episode of neson Express season 3 we are recording this live from aosi exponential at San Diego this is day three the last leg of the conference and I am very excited to introduce my special guest today John hegines CEO and founder of Aloft if youve used lank you've probably used Aloft they've been one of the industry leading platforms delivering UTM Solutions and Fleet Management Services for uncrewed aircraft systems worldwide hello John welcome to the show thanks for having me exciting so how has the even been for you uh it's been it's been pretty crazy it's uh just a ton of meetings a lot of interesting partners and customers so it's always good when when people come together right so I L LinkedIn page John has been buzzing up with all sorts of exciting updates uh let's delve into them starting with your recent partnership announcement with Terror drone Corporation can you give us some insights into the collaboration and what that

**[1:11]** entails uh yeah so it's a it's a collaboration with uh Terror drone which uh really does it's focused in Japan for UTM Services unifly which has uh stuff going on in in Europe and then a Lofts here in the US and so the the thought is one how can we come together and start to standardize kind of across the globe some of these um UTM services and what those look like and then uh two most importantly how do we incorporate this not only into drones but also am and and I think that's the opportunity where on one hand I think am companies are not at all focused on UTM right they're GNA have a a pilot who's going to be on the radio talking to another pilot so it it's not something that they're immediately planning for but it's something that we hope they can lean into in terms of how do you uh Pro provide Cooperative traffic and and just uh uh move us forward to that that place where we have scale and interoperability and Communications across a bunch of different

**[2:13]** Vehicles all right so Terron also has like significant stake in unifly which is another uim provider so is this a moving towards more of standardization and cross sharing information across different UTM platforms uh yeah I think uh as we all come from different parts of the world it's kind of that opportunity to say all right where are there common elements that we can build towards where are there differences between the US and aosa perhaps so I think that's our intent it makes a lot of sense so another news is that aoft has integrated with skyo to incorporate live UTM Telemetry similarly you've recently announced partnership with anzur robotics so what does these Integrations bring in what how do they help drone operators yeah I think uh one it highlights that aoft is drone agnostic we want to work with whatever our customers are flying uh we have a lot of customers that uh use skyo for for different Industries and going back to the UTM Services part of that is all

**[3:17]** right I'm flying let me put that on the map how can we see live Telemetry as it's happening so that as we layer on adsb or some of our other uh map elements you can now see in real time those Sky do operations so it's a big step forward a lot of our customers that maybe have skyio as their entire fleet or just part of their Fleet now that starts to come together got it uh you did mention U aov being drone agnostic so I'll just try to clear devil's advocate here with so many organizations that are providing UTM uh what how does elov differentiate from the rest uh I think first and foremost we're very operator Centric and so uh I think there's some UTM companies that Focus kind of from the high level and say oh we can have UTM Services um but they they invariably miss the T the traffic element and so going back to uh live tary skyio and and other Integrations that we have with other oems that creates

**[4:21]** that that sense of traffic and how do you have uh conformance Monitor and and some of these other uh UTM elements and and without that telemetry it's you're you're missing a big piece so uh I think the deconfliction elements and all of that you you want to connect as many aircraft as possible and and as aoft has the largest network of Pilots across recreational commercial government public safety we have a uh interesting opportunity to really make that that map live and interactive for people got it I think operator Centric is the key word key takeway here uh another thing that a LOF recently announced involve the integration of automated special government interest waivers uh the SGI waivers into the aoft air control platform so what does that mean uh yeah I think we are just constantly talking to our customers like that's what defines our road map and uh this was was

**[5:22]** something that kept coming up and over and over again largely from Public Safety but there are a lot of other Industries whether it's media uh even Insurance sometimes that need to fly when there's a flight restriction and so the previous way that you had to do this was fill out a very uh just cumbersome form uh very timec consuming to fill out especially some of the uh location elements and how do you break down the the coordinates for that and so we already have all of that information as part of uh someone's mission so we we've moved it from a pretty uh terrible headache to fill out that form to Boom one click and you have your your waiver that you can send in to the FAA that that makes the whole system and process much easier uh on the same lines of waivers and regulations so um Aloft has also been actively engaged in various rulemaking committees including the Voss Arc as well as the unmaned aircraft systems

**[6:25]** detection and mitigation systems Aviation rule making committee so could you highlight some of the key takeaways or insights from these committee reports and what do you think how is the be how is boss operations shaping up in the near future uh yeah I think the BB L Arc that was uh published around this time last year um I think that report came out uh really strong and I think industry was was very happy with a lot of the elements that uh that we defined in terms of how do we uh not only assess risk but also probability right like I think a lot of the regulations today have been okay what if a drone hits you in the head right and then I think this Arc was like all right what's the probability that it's going to hit you in the head not that it will hit you in the head and I think a lot of that goes to shielding uh and some of the other aspects in the recommendation so um I don't know we're all on uh pins and needles waiting waiting for the for the rule for part 108 to be

**[7:30]** to take an action so definitely um all right so how like again uh the question is how do you see this shaping up for drone operations or automated drone operations uh in the near future uh is it going to really open up or do you think we still have a few years to go before it really kicks off um I mean realis realistically from the rule it'll it'll take a couple years even after they publish the rule right uh hopefully this summer it'll still take time to to put into place so I think uh the two elements are one are there things that we can immediately start to utilize things like shielding right to fly BB loss uh and then the second piece where aoft has been uh actively engag as a lot of the end the near-term approval process uh and keyside activities um that the fa has kind of done to lean forward and start to say hey how can we approve operations today how can we get data to learn from and so we're we're in that process with uh uh with them and our partners as well to say all

**[8:36]** right even before final rule is in place there's there's plenty of uh safe and really effective BV loss flights that can be happening that does make a lot of sense so thank you John for joining us today we are uh going to be back with another episode of nesen Express season 3 thank you so much for joining in thank you again thank you