Integrity. It’s central to everything we do at Kittyhawk. Whether it’s our professional standards, our data, or our marketing, we infuse everything we do with integrity. It’s in our DNA, and it’s a core value that’s going to help drive the drone industry forward. That’s why it’s so disappointing when a publicly traded company that is privileged to be in the LAANC (Low Altitude Airspace Notification Capability) pilot program doesn’t share those values and would rather spin half-truths at the detriment to the program and the greater drone ecosystem.
Read more:
LAANC Fact Check: Can You Hear Me Now? - sUAS News - The Business of Drones
It's disappointing to see large players like Verizon's Skyward taking advantage of their FAA working group to market themselves in a way that can be confusing for the general public.
How does 4 airports translate into a full fledged offering? I fail to make the jump.
Hi Joshua -
I wanted to correct the incorrect information in your post. There are four airports at which commercial operators can access new volumes of controlled airspace: Cincinnati (CVG), San Jose (SJC), Reno (RNO), and Lincoln, NE (LNK). Our customers at Skyward are already taking advantage of this program. As we said in our press release, these four airports would be the first active in the beta, with an additional 45 airports coming in the next couple weeks. The FAA has listed those
participating airports here. Both our
free (
www.skyward.io/signup) and paid subscribers have access to those first four airports, and we’ll continue to work with the FAA to roll out the airports as they come online.
Skyward was the first to be approved and the first to have our customers access controlled airspace through LAANC — I would imagine if others were in the same position they’d be proud to say that. It took tremendous work from our talented engineers and we’re proud that they received fast technical approval from the FAA. We won’t shy away from that sentiment. Our team works tirelessly to make commercial drone operations safe and efficient for everyone, and we’re proud of that effort.
Second, there are other approved LAANC vendors. All of these providers responded to the FAA’s *public* request for information last fall and were asked to help define and develop the program with the FAA. It’s been as successful a collaboration with the industry as anyone could have hoped for, and we are excited about the continued engagement the FAA has with the industry leaders.
Third, we maintain our commitment to engage with industry leaders to enable these common standards, and this is exactly what LAANC does. Much like our work at the Global UTM Association, the Drone Advisory Committee, the FAA Remote ID ARC, and ICAO, Skyward responded to the public LAANC request for information to continue to participate in public and private partnerships that enable the industry to open up airspace.
