PODCAST SUMMARY: Exploring the autonomous aircraft landscape with Kraettli Epperson of Vigilant Aerospace

In a com­pelling episode of the eVTOL Insights pod­cast, host Jason Pritchard had an in-depth con­ver­sa­tion with Kraet­tli Epper­son, CEO of Vig­i­lant Aero­space.

The episode explored the bur­geon­ing land­scape of autonomous air­craft and its trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial across var­i­ous indus­tries. Here’s a sum­ma­ry of the key insights shared by Epper­son dur­ing the pod­cast:

Autonomous Air­craft: A Grow­ing Invest­ment
Epper­son high­light­ed the increas­ing invest­ment in autonomous air­craft by indus­tries such as trans­porta­tion, logis­tics, agri­cul­ture, and ener­gy. He under­scored the crit­i­cal role of drone ports, which serve as cru­cial hubs hous­ing air­craft, sen­sors, exper­tise, and air­space man­age­ment sys­tems. These facil­i­ties are essen­tial for the sus­tain­able growth of autonomous air­craft oper­a­tions.

Eco­nom­ic and Oper­a­tional Ben­e­fits
One of the stand­out points from Epper­son was the eco­nom­ic and oper­a­tional advan­tages offered by autonomous air­craft.

He explained how pre­ci­sion agri­cul­ture, for instance, ben­e­fits from these tech­nolo­gies by reduc­ing fer­til­iz­er and water usage, thus prov­ing their eco­nom­ic via­bil­i­ty. Addi­tion­al­ly, oper­a­tors can lever­age shared infra­struc­ture at drone ports, which mit­i­gates the need for in-house exper­tise and sub­stan­tial cap­i­tal invest­ments.

Tech­ni­cal and Reg­u­la­to­ry Land­scape
Safe­ty remains the utmost pri­or­i­ty in autonomous air­craft oper­a­tions. Epper­son dis­cussed the impor­tance of detect­ing and avoid­ing both coop­er­a­tive and non-coop­er­a­tive air­craft through advanced radar sys­tems.

He shed light on the ongo­ing reg­u­la­to­ry efforts, par­tic­u­lar­ly the FAA’s move towards orga­ni­za­tion­al cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and the need for strin­gent per­son­nel train­ing. The cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of third-par­ty ser­vices for safe­ty and com­mand and con­trol is also a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward.

Vig­i­lant Aerospace’s Ground­break­ing Projects
Epper­son pro­vid­ed an update on Vig­i­lant Aerospace’s piv­otal projects. The part­ner­ship with Sky­way 36 drone port in Tul­sa exem­pli­fies their com­mit­ment to advanced air­space man­age­ment and oper­a­tor sup­port.

Their work on the inte­gra­tion of the Flight Hori­zon pilot detect and avoid sys­tem into mil­i­tary air­craft, bol­stered by an SBIR phase two con­tract, marks a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone. More­over, col­lab­o­ra­tions with advanced air mobil­i­ty man­u­fac­tur­ers for larg­er air taxi and car­go deliv­ery drones are set to dri­ve the indus­try for­ward.

Inno­v­a­tive Prod­uct Launch­es
Vig­i­lant Aero­space is at the fore­front of inno­va­tion with the roll­out of new prod­ucts such as the Flight Hori­zon Defend­er, a ground-based sys­tem for track­ing drone run­way incur­sions at small­er air­ports, and the Flight Hori­zon Tem­po, an online sys­tem designed to aid advanced air mobil­i­ty in indus­tri­al parks, rur­al, and trib­al facil­i­ties.

Reg­u­la­to­ry and Tech­no­log­i­cal Advance­ments
The episode also touched upon upcom­ing reg­u­la­to­ry changes, par­tic­u­lar­ly the antic­i­pat­ed impact of Part 108, which will allow small drones to fly beyond visu­al line of sight with­out spe­cial waivers, fos­ter­ing indus­try growth.

Tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments in detect­ing and avoid­ing non-coop­er­a­tive air­craft are becom­ing more com­pact, pow­er-effi­cient, and accu­rate, which is cru­cial for inte­grat­ing advanced air mobil­i­ty sys­tems.

Indus­try Trends and Future Out­look
Dri­ven by reg­u­la­to­ry progress and tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions, the drone indus­try is gain­ing momen­tum. Autonomous air­craft are poised to play a sig­nif­i­cant role in logis­tics and infra­struc­ture, sig­nal­ing a rapid mat­u­ra­tion of the indus­try. Epper­son empha­sized the poten­tial for rapid growth and increased reg­u­la­to­ry sup­port, paint­ing a pos­i­tive out­look for the future.

Con­clu­sion
Kraet­tli Epperson’s insights on the eVTOL Insights pod­cast under­scored the dynam­ic and rapid­ly evolv­ing realm of autonomous air­craft. With sub­stan­tial invest­ments, eco­nom­ic ben­e­fits, reg­u­la­to­ry advance­ments, and inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies, the future of autonomous air­craft is glar­ing­ly bright.