Skyward, wireless carrier Verizon’s drone software subsidiary, will be ending operations in the coming weeks. In addition to the quandary this development presents Skyward customers with, the unexpected news puts in a limbo European drone maker Parrot’s plan to make its ANAFI Ai craft 4G-enabled right out of the box.
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Telecom heavyweight Verizon has surprised industry observers by abruptly revealing it will be winding down and closing operation of its Skyward drone management business in the next several weeks, shuttering a unit it only bought in 2017.
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Skyward drone management platform now supports flight logs from some of DJI’s newest aircraft models, including the Mavic 3, Mavic Air 2, and Air 2S.
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The Skyward team has completely refreshed the InFlight mobile app from the ground up. Skyward’s airspace management and flight planning app now features a brand-new design and comes with a color-coded “stoplight” system that warns drone pilots about serious, moderate, or low-level concerns.
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It’s been a month since Parrot announced its new commercial drone, ANAFI Ai — an admittedly stylish machine that uses 4G LTE as the primary data link between the drone and the operator. Now, we have more details on how Parrot will make sure operators in the United States are able to utilize this intriguing feature out of the box.
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Skyward, a Verizon company, is integrating professional drone photogrammetry software Pix4D into its online platform. This partnership will allow Skyward customers to leverage cloud-based drone data processing and convert their data into 2D maps and 3D models – without ever leaving the Skyward platform.
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Verizon’s Skyward and UPS Flight Forward have announced they will be working together to bring drone delivery to The Villages in Florida. The drones will use Verzion’s 4G and 5G networks, running on Skywards’ drone management platform.
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Minnesota energy provider Great River Energy has turned to Verizon’s Skyward to help scale its drone program. The company now has 11 certified drone pilots and a fleet of 13 aircraft used to cut down costs and improve workplace safety.
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The FAA has granted Verizon Skyward a temporary waiver that allows its pilots to inspect critical communications infrastructure near the Big Hollow wildfire in Washington from home using network-connected drones. The pilots are allowed to operate 24 hours a day with less than three miles of visibility and no person onsite to monitor the operation.
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Commercial drone operators using Skyward Aviation Management Platform can now see the whereabouts of all their drones, in near real time, from anywhere.
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Skyward introduces a brand new feature, called Flight Insights. This provides UAS Managers with an overview of all their organization’s flight operations. A feature that is especially useful for companies with large fleets of drones.
Last week during InterDrone, Dan Elwell, the Acting Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had stated that the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability or LAANC roll-out would be completed before the end of the month. Well, it seems that the FAA is ahead of schedule. As of today the Central North States have been activated. This is the last region to come on board. LAANC is now available for commercial drone operators nationwide. Allowing pilots to get near real-time approval for their flight plans. In the past, the approval or waiver process used to take weeks if not months. The availability of LAANC throughout the country represents a huge milestone in the development of commercial drone applications.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had already announced it early in March, but yesterday marked the official start of the expansion of the Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC). The system will be deployed at nearly 300 air traffic facilities covering approximately 500 airports and is expected to be finished in September.
Starting today, Part 107 drone operators, or commercial drone pilots, can use the Skyward Low Altitude Airspace Notification Capability (LAANC) cloud solution to request automated FAA approval to fly their drones in controlled airspace.
About two weeks ago we reported on Skyward (owned by Verizon) being the first FAA-approved vendor to begin administering the automated Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) approval process. Now, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) has approved to be the first company to actually use the Low Altitude Authorization Capability (LAANC) for automatic access to operate a drone in regulated airspace over controlled airports.
Skyward has been approved as a LAANC provider, an automated, fast-track approval process to allow commercial drone pilots to gain instant access to controlled airspace. This is a huge step forward as it reduces wait times for commercial drone operators to mere seconds whereas the traditional approval process could take months.
Skyward, which is owned by Verizon, is the first FAA-approved vendor to begin administering the automated Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) approval process. They have announced that the system will go live this fall at the following four airports: Cincinnati International Airport (CVG), Reno (RNO), San Jose (SJC), and Lincoln (LNK). The FAA plans to include 49 airports in the program by the end of next year.
