ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--A new website dedicated to supporting the integration of commercially operated unmanned aerial vehicles - or drones - and the existing aviation infrastructure, is now live at www.droneport.com. Droneport features original editorial content, relevant newswire story links and reference information regarding the blending of the drone and aviation communities. "The sooner we can identify common ground and a mutual language between these two industries, the sooner both can benefit from increased commercial drone operations," said Brad Hayden, Publisher of Droneport. "Together, the established aviation industry and the nascent commercial drone community represent the future of flight."
The potential for commercial drone applications is limitless. From surveying and spraying crops to the front-door delivery aspirations of businesses from Amazon to the neighborhood pizza place, everyone has a job a drone can do, and there are a number of manufacturers who now, or soon will, produce machines designed specifically to do each of them. Ultimately, the new drone aircraft will be sharing the skies with manned planes flying today.
"Drones provide the opportunity for growth and new missions and aviation provides a proven FAA-approved infrastructure'" said Scott Spangler, Droneport's Editor. "This ranges from collegiate aviation programs and designated engineering representatives to FAA repair stations for avionics, airframes, and powerplants. As they are to the rest of aviation, repair stations are what will sustain commercial drone operations by providing the necessary maintenance, inspections, and required record keeping."
Droneport will ultimately become a community that promotes open, meaningful dialogue among the emerging drone industry, the established aviation market and the regulatory agencies that govern all aircraft operations.
Spangler adds, "We'll bring in thought leaders from all industries to lead discussions that will help define the next generation of aviation missions, operations, airports...and droneports."
About Droneport
Droneport's mission is simply stated: to help those who build, fly, operate, and maintain drones make the transition from personal experiments to commercial operations for compensation and hire. Through impartial original reporting, Droneport focuses on subjects the participants must comprehend and embrace to take the next step as an industry.
Like aviation in the 1920s, the drone industry is in its adolescence, attempting to focus its identity and decide what it hopes to achieve over time. Some may bristle at the generic description of "drone," but it provides a ready mental image that encompasses remotely piloted aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned aircraft systems, and a host of other descriptions and acronyms.
Ensuring the public safety, in the air and on the ground, is the key to making the transition to commercial drone operations in any nation's airspace. This will be achieved, as it was with populated aircraft, with standard requirements for the manufacture, maintenance, and continuing inspections of aircraft and the training and certification of pilots and operators.
Scott Spangler, Droneport Editor
A pilot since 1976, Scott M. Spangler was the founding editor of Flight Training magazine. In 1999 he launched and edited NAFI Mentor for the National Association of Flight Instructors and for seven years was editor in chief of EAA publications. As a freelancer, for the past six years' he's been editor of JetWhine.com, and he's written for Air & Space Smithsonian, Avionics News, Overhaul & Maintenance, Aviation for Women, Twin & Turbine, and Kitplanes, among others. An instrument-rated commercial pilot, Scott flies for fun and recreation. Aviation education is an overpowering interest because Scott believes that thorough initial and recurrent training is the key to safety, the prime ingredient in having fun in the sky.
A student of all things aviation, as editor or contributor he's eagerly shared what he's learned about aviation education, pilot and aircraft certification, and aviation technology with the readers of a number of print and online publications. Long ago he learned that no one person has all the answers, so Droneport is a place where interested participants can contribute to the solutions that will safely put drones to work.
Brad Hayden, Droneport Publisher
Brad grew up in the aviation industry, working as a repairman and a dealer from a young age in his family's avionics sales and service business. After graduating from the University of Utah, he left aviation to begin a nearly 20-year career managing global, high tech marketing programs for companies such as US Robotics, 3Com, Informix and EFI.
In 2007, Brad returned to aviation as one of the original employees of Aspen Avionics, a venture-backed cockpit display manufacturer, where he was responsible for creating and building the emerging company's brand and overall marketing presence. In 2010 he was given responsibility for all product strategy at Aspen, and led the definition and rollout of the company's groundbreaking Connected Panel product line, which has revolutionized the synchronization of data in the cockpit.
Today, Brad is the Publisher of Droneport, a website dedicated to facilitating the integration of the emerging commercial drone fleet into the established aviation community. In addition, he serves as President and CEO of Robotic Skies, a partner network of FAA-certified Part 145 repair stations that are optimized to provide certification and maintenance services for drones. Brad also serves as President of Kings Avionics, the aircraft electronics sales and service company his father started in 1969.
A certified private pilot, and an avid First Person View drone pilot, Brad believes that the future of aviation lies in embracing and supporting emerging technologies, like drone aircraft, into the mainstream of the aerospace industry. Brad lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Thea, a marketing executive with Dell, and their three children.
