Manned & Unmanned Aircraft Integration
For the last five months as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Encore Venture Labs, I have focused on identifying innovative market opportunities for manufacturing, hardware, and software in the aerospace industry, along with building critical relationships between EVL and federal, state, non-profit, and university partners. My goal has been to leverage my unique skills, experiences, and passions to improve the lives of others through aerospace innovation and economic development, right here in my home state of Ohio. It should come as no surprise that Ohio is the perfect place to accomplish this; in recent years the state has consistently ranked near the top of economic development statistics nationwide, and, from the Wright Brothers to Anduril’s forthcoming Arsenal-1 plant, has a deep history and bright future in the aerospace industry.
My experience started with deep primary and secondary market research to confirm/invalidate initial theses. After hundreds of conversations with potential customers, end users, researchers, and subject matter experts, along with a daily routine of reading as many relevant articles, research papers, and blog posts I could find, I converged on a specific need that consistently arose. To sum it up, my current work aims to revolutionize aerial deconfliction and integration of manned and unmanned aircraft (drones), specifically for the purposes of protecting aviators and passengers, but also to improve the effectiveness of manned/unmanned teaming operations in mission critical environments. A salient example of the last point is the wildfire firefighting efforts in California – a no-fail mission undertaken by manned and unmanned aerial crews that must operate together seamlessly while avoiding collisions with errant civilian drones in the process.
As a former military officer and aviator with experience in manned/unmanned airspace management, this is a very exciting opportunity for me and I’m happy to share that we have designed, built, and ground tested a novel prototype hardware and software solution that addresses this critical need with an impressive roadmap of capabilities. The solution requires no additional avionics or modification to any aircraft and is cockpit-portable, while still integrating directly with the aircrews with zero increase to cognitive load. We are still in the early stages, but the economic potential, impact to U.S. reindustrialization, and benefits to aircrews achieved through commercialization promise this to be a highly valuable venture.
Reach out to me directly via linkedin to learn more and partner with us for airworthiness testing and design iteration.
