PODCAST: Beyond the aircraft: Melissa Rank from SAM on preparing the wider ecosystem for AAM

In this episode of the eVTOL Insights Pod­cast, Jason Pritchard speaks with Melis­sa Rank, Avi­a­tion Mar­ket Leader and Pro­gramme Direc­tor at SAM, about the foun­da­tions need­ed to sup­port advanced air mobil­i­ty.

Draw­ing on her expe­ri­ence in geospa­tial tech­nol­o­gy and avi­a­tion, Melis­sa explains why clos­er col­lab­o­ra­tion with crit­i­cal infra­struc­ture own­ers is essen­tial as drone oper­a­tions expand into low-alti­tude air­space.

She dis­cuss­es her engage­ment with the rail indus­try and high­lights the dis­tinc­tion between organ­i­sa­tions oper­at­ing drones them­selves and prepar­ing for third-par­ty flights around their assets.

The con­ver­sa­tion explores how accu­rate map­ping, cur­rent data and shared oper­a­tional aware­ness can sup­port safer inte­gra­tion, along­side the risks of devel­op­ing avi­a­tion rules with­out suf­fi­cient engage­ment beyond the sec­tor.

Melis­sa also con­sid­ers emerg­ing appli­ca­tions, from dis­as­ter response to con­nect­ing remote com­mu­ni­ties, and shares a clear mes­sage: scal­ing AAM requires strong infra­struc­ture, pub­lic trust and ear­ly dia­logue with the indus­tries and com­mu­ni­ties that will share its oper­at­ing envi­ron­ment.

Click on the Play but­ton below to lis­ten to the episode, which is avail­able on whichev­er pod­cast plat­form you use.