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One of the world’s biggest air mobility events opened today in Amsterdam, as Amsterdam Drone Week kicked off. The event is uniquely global in nature, bringing stakeholders from around the world together to discuss regulations, operations, public opinion and integration. This morning, keynote addresses brought aviation leadership from Europe and the US together to discuss […]
The post FAA, ICAO Tout Progress on Air Mobility: From the Floor of Amsterdam Drone Week appeared first on DRONELIFE.
Progressing Towards Certification: Archer Aviation’s Successful Safety Tests Archer Aviation Inc., a developer of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, has completed a series of battery pack drop tests, an important requirement in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification process. Conducted at the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) lab, these tests evaluated the […]
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From the floor of the National Public Safety UAS Conference: a panel of FAA representative provide updates and insights for public safety and law enforcement drone community. Mike O’Shea, FAA Public Safety Liaison; Kerry Fleming, Manager of SOSC; and Aviation Safety Analyst John Meehan presented a major update to the B4UFly app, remote ID, and […]
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At the DRONERESPONDERS National Public Safety UAS Conference, Jeffrey Vincent, the Executive Director of the FAA’s UAS Integration Office, spoke to a packed house of public safety professionals about what is next for drone regulations – including a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for BVLOS flight by the end of this year. The FAA’s UAS […]
The post FAA’s Jeffrey Vincent: What’s Next in Drone Regulations (and When Can We Expect that BVLOS NPRM?) appeared first on DRONELIFE.
ARC Recommendations on Counter UAS, UAS Detection and Mitigation Systems The FAA recently received the final recommendations from the UAS Detection and Mitigation Systems Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). This milestone follows the directive outlined in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 to address the safe integration of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Air […]
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Airspace Link Inc., an FAA-Approved UAS (Drone) Service Supplier and Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) provider, has been approved to provide the FAA’s B4UFLY service, says a company press release. B4UFLY is a joint effort between the FAA and industry leaders like Airspace Link. The initiative aims to ensure the safety of drone […]
The post Airspace Link Approved to Provide FAA’s B4UFLY Service appeared first on DRONELIFE.
It was quite a week in the realm of B4UFly. Aloft’s partnership with the FAA formally ended. The FAA then effectively replaced Aloft with four, new approved service providers. And to round it out, Aloft on Friday dropped a mega Air Aware update.
What’s kind of incredible about the new Air Aware update? It includes all B4UFLY required data sets. That’s all despite not actually being one of the four, officially FAA-endorsed, B4UFly service providers.
Aloft, the San Francisco-based drone software startup that powered the FAA’s B4UFly app between 2019 and early 2024. But in early 2024, Aloft announced its contract with the FAA was up. Instead, it would launch a new app called Air Aware in partnership with Pilot Institute. The Air Aware app offers real-time insights before, during, and after drone operations.
And on February 2, 2024 — a day after the FAA announced its new B4UFly service providers — Aloft announced a fresh update to the Air Aware app. The update is pretty impressive.
B4UFly data: Perhaps most central to the update is the integration of all FAA-required B4UFLY data layers. That means app users receive detailed information on Military Training Routes and Recreational Fixed Sites. And, Aloft promises that the information comes from official FAA sources and will always be up to date.
FRIA data: The app also has a list of FAA Recognized Identification Areas (FRIA) integrated into its maps.
FRIAS are areas where the FAA does not require you to fly using Remote ID capability (in short, you won’t have to broadcast your drone’s flying information, and you won’t need an expensive Remote ID module). There are about 2,000 FRIAs across the U.S., and more are expected to come. Aloft says it’ll continuously update its app to display them.
The FAA’s B4UFLY service is critically in clearing spelling out where recreational flyers can and cannot fly drones. While the FAA at one point tried building such a service itself, it wasn’t as robust as what private companies could do — which is why Aloft began powering the service in 2019.
The partnership lasted five years. And now, that partnership is over, thus Aloft has parted ways with the FAA as an official B4UFly provider. Yet, it is still building a separate app that offers B4UFly data.
“As many have noted to us, we haven’t just built the replacement for B4UFLY, but the next generation of situational awareness,” according to a blog post from Aloft.
Aloft said that, during the five years it powered the FAA’s B4UFly app, it served millions of unique drone pilots across a collective 33 million airspace searches.
“While we’ve moved on to this new platform that will enable us to offer more complete and robust solutions, we’re bringing all of that knowledge, experience, scale, and security to Air Aware,” according to Aloft’s blog post about the Air Aware update.
You can download Aloft’s Air Aware app here.
Aloft previously powered B4UFly.
“As our 5-year unpaid contract (including two extensions) came to expiration, Aloft was a proponent of expanding the program,” Aloft CEO Jon Hegranes told The Drone Girl.
But the FAA’s approach — which was opening up the new approved service providers to those that are already approved to offer LAANC services — wasn’t exactly what Aloft wanted.
“The shortfall of the new solution is that it is a small subset of all USS’s. A superset of new communities would have been a far more impactful approach. What if the AMA, FPVFC, or even Drone Girl had their own “B4UFLY” apps? That is the way to expand awareness and start to solve the recreational compliance challenges.”
Those USS’s, which also offer LAANC services, are:
The FAA also is not paying the four B4UFly service providers, meaning they are self-funded. While the FAA stipulates that the actual B4UFly component must be free for drone pilots to use, many monetize their apps in other ways. For example, AutoPylot also sells insurance through its same B4UFly app, while UAS Sidekick heavily leans into a more advanced subscription offering.
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AeroX aims to develop Advanced Air Mobility system in North Carolina By DRONELIFE Features Editor Jim Magill Advances in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle technology coupled with the development of new regulations regarding advanced air mobility (AAM) systems will likely pave the way for a new generation of vertiports to spring up around […]
The post DRONELIFE Exclusive: Non-Profit AeroX on Developing Advanced Air Mobility in North Carolina appeared first on DRONELIFE.
Teri Bristol Joins ANRA Technologies Board of Directors ANRA Technologies, a prominent player in the global uncrewed traffic management and operation solutions arena, proudly announces the addition of Ms. Teri Bristol to its Board of Directors. Ms. Bristol, with a wealth of executive experience garnered from her illustrious career spanning aerospace, technology, and government, is […]
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Aviation Pioneers Kevin Morris and Huy Tran on the 2023 Highlights in Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Advanced Air Mobility: from the Dawn of Drones interview. By: Akshata 2023 has been an important year for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), in terms of significant progress. In this exclusive year-in-review with industry experts […]
The post Navigating the Skies: FAA and NASA Unveil Top 3 Breakthroughs in UAS and AAM for 2023 appeared first on DRONELIFE.