AirMap announces new partnerships
AirMap, which provides global airspace management for drones, has announced two new major partnerships with Honeywell and Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic (ANS CR).
AirMap, which provides global airspace management for drones, has announced two new major partnerships with Honeywell and Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic (ANS CR).
AirMap’s partnership with Honeywell marks the development of a cost-effective drone tracking solution. “The device is designed to provide a real-time operating picture of the airspace for both manned and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS),” said Ben Marcus, AirMap Chairman and Co-founder. “We’ve partnered with Honeywell to deliver an easy-to-use, cost-effective, and drone-agnostic device as a practical way to start managing drone traffic in any environment, today.”
Honeywell and AirMap will work together to provide a hardware device that will allow consistent communication between UAS, or drones, and a UAS Traffic Management (UTM) system. This will support multiple communication options that includes 4G, and satellite in areas with no 4G coverage, which will stream real-time drone telemetry feeds to a UTM system. The UTM systems also takes software-based solutions for visualisation, monitoring, and deconfliction by air navigation service providers (ANSP) and other relevant authorities.
Simultaneously, AirMap has also announced a partnership with ANS CR that sees both companies collaborate with UpVision – a UAS service provider – to enable the ‘Smart Sky’ strategy to develop further. Smart Sky is the Czech Republic’s nationwide strategy that aims to enable and support the safe operation of drones, while developing drone-related services. After deploying the AirMap UTM platform in August 2018, which used UpVision’s localisation and technical support to manage authorisations for drone flights in the controlled airspace around Václav Havel Airport in Prague, ANS CR and AirMap’s latest collaboration will further build upon this success – working with UpVision to develop a roadmap that will, in turn, enable a fully operational drone traffic management system by 2020 via Smart Sky.
ANS CR’s system, which will ensure that all categories of drones and all types of missions can safely take flight in the Czech Republic's airspace, includes: e-registration and e-identification for users and drones; pre-tactical geofencing and flight planning; automated and manual digital airspace authorisation; real-time traffic alerts for drone pilots and live drone telemetry for airspace managers; connectivity and communication between drone pilots and airspace administrators; and other services to enable simultaneous flights in shared airspace.
“We are changing the environment in Czech Republic by enabling safe drone operations and unlocking its value through Smart Sky for business in large scale,” commented Stepan Alexa, Managing Director of UpVision. “Never has the opportunity been greater. It's very exciting.”
"By opening up more airspace we are helping give rise to a new drone economy," said AirMap Co-Founder and Chairman Ben Marcus. "The Czech Republic is among the global first movers in the race to capture a share of the tremendous opportunity that drones represent as they become more and more a part of our everyday lives."