A few years ago, I sat down with Jim McAndrew, one of the smartest technologists I’ve had the pleasure to meet, and we hashed out a vision for the future of autonomous drones in industry. We outlined robust tools for modular, mission based autonomous data collection, concepts for state-of-the-art data processing and delivery, a platform for worldwide drone data capture from drone-in-a-box networks, and app suites for using the technology in drones today to inspect the entire world around us, and eventually possibly even take that same tech to space.
Our visions were lofty, but the products we focused on were practical. We founded Hangar, and focused on creating a collection of key technologies for commercial drones to semi-autonomously acquire data, process it, and make it actionable for stakeholders in defined value chains. In the years that followed, Hangar inspected thousands of sites, and collected hundreds of thousands of datasets from our networks of pilots for clients around the world in construction, tower inspection and more.
In 2018, I was honored to help recruit and bring in Scott Lumish, formerly of Drone Deploy to be the CEO of Hangar. His mission was to help understand where the technology our hard working team had created would live in the drone world. One of our early conversations centered around our agreement that the commercial drone space will need to collaborate, partner, and work within ecosystems to develop truly valuable end-to-end solutions for enterprise customers. In our reports and analysis at Guinn Partners we’ve noted again and again a consolidation is happening in these next few years that will lead to the necessary efficiencies in organizations and workflows to allow the commercial drone industry to reach its next peak. I’m excited to see this vision come to fruition, as Hangar became a part of Airmap in an acquisition a few weeks ago.
Airmap’s vision for understanding the complex regulatory and customer needs for true scaled commercial drone operation is inspiring. They’ve come a long way since Ben first showed me his product to integrate into our 3DR Solo drone many years back, and I’m confident in their leadership in the space as we look at the future of drone applications around the globe.
In this video – I talk with Scott through the journey of Hangar and the vision for the next era of aerial data.
To everyone that was a part of the Hangar journey, thank you. All of us are looking forward to what Airmap builds with Hangar’s technology, and how this industry will continue to progress.